Media Center

TMK develops new technical solutions for CO2 transportation and injection

TMK is focused on launching new steel grades for pipes used to inject carbon dioxide underground, said Evgeny Kharlamov, Head of the Laboratory for Corrosion Protection and Operational Reliability at TMK’s R&D facility, during the National Oil and Gas Forum held on April 18–21 in Moscow.

Building models for carbon dioxide injection has been a red-hot topic in the last three years, with major Russian oil companies rushing to develop carbon dioxide storage projects – creating new efficient mathematical models covering the process of gas burial, filtration and displacement in underground gas reservoirs, drilling new pilot wells and selecting surface equipment, compressors and downhole assemblies, including the choice of materials for corrosion-resistant pipes.

As part of these efforts, TMK is developing and testing special corrosion-resistant steel grades and pipe products required for advancing new methods of CO₂ injection into a reservoir. To do this, the Company has involved two major research facilities – the Russian Research Institute of the Tube & Pipe Industries (RUSNITI) in Chelyabinsk and TMK’s R&D facility in Skolkovo. These facilities are used to run unique tests to simulate specific reservoir conditions.

Evgeny Kharlamov said: “We run sulfide stress cracking tests, hydrogen cracking tests and general corrosion tests. With a total of four autoclaves, we can run tests in hydrogen sulfide as well as in carbon dioxide, including in supercritical state, as well as mixed corrosion tests – carbon dioxide plus hydrogen sulfide.”

He noted that oil companies have not yet achieved a consolidated view on which aggregate state of gas – liquid or supercritical – is optimal for CO₂ injection into a reservoir. This is due to widely varied specific profiles of reservoir structure, capacity and filtration performance. Materials need to be selected to suit the specific conditions of CO₂ transportation and injection. Evgeny Kharlamov emphasized that TMK is able to rise up to these technical challenges and can run a wide range of special tests at its own laboratories to meet individual customer requirements.