Corrosion and Wear Resistant Boronizing for Tubulars and Components Used Down-Hole

Abstract

Components and tubulars in down-hole applications for oil and gas production must withstand severe wear (e.g. erosion, abrasion, rod wear) and corrosion environments. These challenges can be addressed through boronizing of steels achieved employing chemical vapour deposition-based process. This process permits protection of the entire working surfaces of production tubulars up to 12m in length, as well as various sizes of complex shaped components. The performance of these tubulars and components have been evaluated in abrasion, erosion, and corrosion conditions simulating the environment and service conditions experienced in down-hole oil and gas production. Harsh service conditions are very common in the oil industry and the combination of abrasion, friction-induced wear, erosion, and corrosion environments can be quite normal in wells producing with the assistance of artificial lift methods. The boronized steel products demonstrated significantly higher performance in terms of material loss when exposed to harsh operating conditions granting a significant extension of the component service life in wear and corrosion environments. As opposed to many coating technologies, the boronizing process provides high integrity finished products without spalling or delamination on the working surface and minimal dimensional changes. Successful application of tubulars and components with the iron boride protective layer in oil and gas production will be discussed and presented.