Dubai Petroleum (the Operator) operates five oil fields in the offshore Dubai area of the United Arab Emirates. Within these operated fields there is a network of over 30 unlined carbon steel sea water injection pipelines that are presently in use, with abandoned or mothballed pipelines taking this number to over 50. This publication discusses the experience of the Operator, where the operating life of these pipelines has typically exceeded 20 years, and on occasion has exceeded 40 years. This is compared with the experience of the UK sector, where failures in as little as four years have been noted and many pipelines have failed to reach 15 years of service. The prevalent corrosion mechanisms are discussed and a comparison of corrosion control measures such as de-aeration and microbial control is made. An assessment of the Operator's pipeline corrosion, chemical, monitoring and inspection data is discussed. Evidence is presented that operational pigging of sea water injection pipelines can reduce corrosion rates and significantly extent pipeline life in combination with other industry standard corrosion control measures such as de-aeration, chlorination and batch biocide treatment.
Dubai Petroleum (the Operator) operates five offshore oil fields in the Emirate of Dubai (Fateh, South West Fateh, Falah, Jallilah and Rashid), in addition to various onshore gas production, storage, distribution and import facilities, and LNG import facilities. The assets within these offshore fields consist of approximately 80 platforms of various sizes, comprising central bridge linked processing facilities in Fateh and South West Fateh, and outlying normally unmanned wellhead production platforms. These platforms are linked by a network of over 150 subsea pipelines, of which over 30 are presently operational sea water injection pipelines
A schematic of these offshore platforms and the associated sea water injection pipelines is presented in Figure 1, overleaf;
Sea Water Injection Pipeline Network
The offshore sea water injection pipeline system consists of over 50 pipelines, of which more than 30 are operational. Of the remaining balance, a number of pipelines have failed and have been replaced, and others have been placed into suspension where no longer required for support of production. The purpose of water injection is to maintain production pressure in the reservoirs and replace produced liquid volume.
