Corrosion rate of API 5L Gr. X60 multipurpose steel pipeline under combined effect of water and crude oil

Multipurpose pipeline is often seriously corroded during its service life, and the phenomenon is more prominent once the transportation medium is changed. Electrochemical polarization curves and impedance spectroscopy of the API 5L Gr. X60 steel pipeline’s corrosion process in sedimentary water with different ion types and their concentrations have been studied in this work. The results showed that the corrosion rates were found to be 0.00418 and 0.00232 mm/a for pure water and crude oil, respectively. However, for the mixtures of water and crude oil (with water content increased from 0.2 vol% to 10 vol%), the corrosion rate increased consistently and reached a maximum value of 0.15557 mm/a for 10 vol% water in crude oil. The effect of the concentration of various ions, namely, chloride, bicarbonate and sulfate in (oil/water) mixtures on the corrosion rate was characterized by weight-loss method. The results showed that with increasing the ions’ concentrations, the corresponding exchange current density increased significantly. The results were further supported by the observations of corrosion morphology using scanning electron microscopy and are helpful in devising guidelines which would help in reducing corrosion in multipurpose transport pipelines involving a change of transported medium during their service life.