A review study on the challenges and progress of corrosion inhibitor testing under extreme conditions in the oil and gas industries

High-temperature CO2 (sweet) corrosion is a key problem in the oil and gas industry as it leads to frequent failures and high maintenance costs due to the replacements of pipeline materials. One of the major challenges in evaluating corrosion inhibitors under harsher conditions similar to the one in the oil and gas industry (with temperature greater than 100 oC) is developing reliable testing methods that replicate the oil and gas corrosive environments adequately. As the theme is extensive and highly pertinent, the testing methodologies and characterization techniques used for evaluating sweet corrosion inhibitors under extreme conditions are reviewed in this paper. The challenges, existing knowledge gaps, and future perspectives related to high-temperature sweet corrosion testing methods are also described. Of the different configurations of autoclaves, the rotating cage autoclave was found to be the most effective testing equipment in simulating the general and local (pitting) corrosion attack of metallic parts by the extreme conditions common in the oil and gas industry.