1 Scope
This document gives requirements and recommendations for the selection and qualification
of carbon and low-alloy steels for service in equipment used in oil and natural gas
production and natural gas treatment plants in H2S-containing environments, whose failure can pose a risk to the health and safety
of the public and personnel or to the environment. It can be applied to help to avoid
costly corrosion damage to the equipment itself. It supplements, but does not replace,
the materials requirements of the appropriate design codes, standards or regulations.
This document addresses the resistance of these steels to damage that can be caused
by sulfide stress cracking (SSC) and the related phenomena of stress-oriented hydrogen-induced
cracking (SOHIC) and soft-zone cracking (SZC).
This document also addresses the resistance of these steels to hydrogen-induced cracking
(HIC) and its possible development into stepwise cracking (SWC).
This document is concerned only with cracking. Loss of material by general (mass loss)
or localized corrosion is not addressed.
Table 1 provides a non-exhaustive list of equipment to which this document is applicable,
including exclusions.
This document applies to the qualification and selection of materials for equipment
designed and constructed using load controlled design methods. For design utilizing
strain-based design methods, see ISO 15156‑1:2020, Clause 5.
Annex A lists SSC-resistant carbon and low alloy steels, and A.2.4 includes requirements for the use of cast irons.
This document is not necessarily suitable for application to equipment used in refining
or downstream processes and equipment.
Table 1
—
List of equipment
|
This document is applicable to materials used
for the following equipment |
Exclusions |
|---|---|
| Drilling, well construction and well-servicing equipment |
Equipment exposed only to drilling fluids of controlled compositiona Drill bits
Blowout preventer (BOP) shear bladesb
Drilling riser systems
Work strings
Wireline and wireline equipmentc
Surface and intermediate casing
|
| Wells, including subsurface equipment, gas lift equipment, wellheads and christmas trees |
Sucker rod pumps and sucker rodsd Electric submersible pumps
Other artificial lift equipment
Slips
|
| Flow-lines, gathering lines, field facilities and field processing plants | Crude oil storage and handling facilities operating at a total absolute pressure below 0,45 MPa (65 psi) |
| Water-handling equipment | Water-handling facilities operating at a total absolute pressure below 0,45 MPa (65 psi)
Water injection and water disposal equipment
|
| Natural gas treatment plants | — |
| Transportation pipelines for liquids, gases and multiphase fluids |
Lines handling gas prepared for general commercial and domestic use |
| For all equipment above | Components loaded only in compression |