Corrosion Challenges on Electrical Submersible Pump Wells in the North Kuwait Field

Abstract

Oil production in North Kuwait (NK) asset highly relies on artificial lift systems. The predominant method of artificial lift in NK is electrical submersible pump (ESP). Corrosion is one of the major issues for wells equipped with ESP in NK field. Over 20% of the all pulled ESPs in 2019 and 2020 in NK field were due to corrosion of the completion or the ESP string. With an increase in ESP population in NK, a proactive corrosion mitigation is essential to reduce the number of ESP wells requiring workover. Historic data of the pulled ESPs in NK revealed that most of the corrosion cases were found in the tubing as opposed to the ESP components. Although there are multiple factors that can cause corrosion in NK, the driving force was identified to be the presence of CO2 (sweet corrosion). Corrosion rates have been enhanced by other factors such as stray current and galvanic couples. In this paper, multiple methods have been suggested to minimize and prevent the corrosion issue such as selecting the optimal completion and ESP metallurgy (ex. corrosion resistant alloy), installing internally glass reinforced epoxy lined carbon steel tubing, and installing a sacrificial anode whenever applicable.