Corrosion and gas hydrate formation are flow assurance problems that can cause serious safety problems in deep water environments. One aspect that has been given less attention is the corrosion behavior of materials in salinity environment where gas hydrate formation and CO2 (sweet) corrosion can both occur. This type of environment is common in oil and gas deep water environments. The aim of this work is to investigate the effects of CO2-saturated salinity environment on Ni-Mo alloys at gas hydrate formation temperatures using electrochemical, SEM/EDX, and XRD surface characterization techniques. The immersion test solutions were sweet low-salinity (CO2 + 1 wt% salt + 5 oC) and sweet high- salinity (CO2 + ~24 wt% salt + 5 oC) environments, respectively. The as-deposited Ni-Mo alloy coating has the highest corrosion resistance of 33.28 kΩ cm2. The corrosion resistance dropped to 14.36 kΩ cm2 and 11.11 kΩ cm2 after 20 hrs of immersion in the sweet low-salinity and sweet high-salinity test solutions respectively. From grazing incidence XRD, the (111) reflection peak of the Ni-Mo coating was depressed and broaden after immersion in both test solutions due to increase in oxide layer formation on the surface of the Ni-Mo coating. SEM revealed a cracked surface morphology after immersion in sweet high-salinity test solution and elemental analysis shows the presence of oxygen after immersion in both test solutions. The oxygen content increased from 1.70 wt% after immersion in sweet low-salinity test solution to 2.37 wt% after immersion in sweet high-salinity test solution.
Evidence for gas hydrate occurrences in the Canadian Arctic Beaufort Sea within permafrost-associated shelf and deep-water marine environments