An insight into corrosion causes/mechanisms and the assessment of pipe integrity.
There are several reasons why we place pipes in the open hole. Pipes primarily prevent the hole from
collapsing and allow further drilling. When cemented, pipes isolate formations with different pore
pressures. Production casing, liners, and tubing are put in place as elements of the oil and gas flow
conduit from the reservoir to surface. Therefore, it is clear that the integrity of all tubular downhole is of
paramount importance to the “health” of any oil and gas well, and has got a direct impact on the
amount and effectiveness of hydrocarbon recovery.
Corrosion is ultimately the main enemy to the integrity of well completions; if left to develop without
repair actions, corrosion can lead to catastrophic failures that can be very costly and could cause severe
damage to the environment (blowout, hydrocarbon leak, etc).
This presentation aims at:
1) Explaining the main corrosion mechanisms which can develop downhole inside oil & gas wells, in
the hope that understanding that will help in taking preventive and cure measures.
2) Giving an overview of the Pipe Integrity diagnostic tools that are currently available in the
market, with few selected real life examples that illustrate their principles of measurements and
their merits as well as their limitations.
Antoine Elkadi
Antoine is the Production Logging & Well Integrity interpretation domains expert for
Schlumberger - Data Services in the Middle East. He has started his career as a field engineer in
1982. Since then he has been to various field, tutorial and management assignments in the
Middle East and Europe. Antoine started his interpretation career in 1998 during his assignment
to Aberdeen in the UK, where he performed open and cased hole interpretations on data sets
from the various North Sea fields. Before his transfer back to the Middle East in 2002, he was
the chief Cased Hole Petrophysicist at the Data and Consulting Group of Schlumberger in the UK.
During the years 2002 till present, Antoine has been involved in Well Integrity and Production
Logging interpretations, case studies and projects at various countries in the Middle East. His
wealth of knowledge and experience have been the main driver behind his achievements in his
current assignment as “PL & WI Domains Expert”.
Education
− 1982, Master’s degree in electrical engineering from “Saint Joseph” university in Beirut –
Lebanon.
Professional affiliations – Activities
− SPWLA member
Publications
− A pioneering ultrasonic technique that enhances light weight cement evaluation and allows
cement sheath thickness imaging.
(M. Hamawi and R. Masood, ADCO; Z. Al-Kindi and A. Elkadi, Schlumberger)
This paper was presented at the "1st annual Middle East Regional SPWLA Symposium, April
15-19, 2007)
− SPE 101420, Reliability of Cement Bond Log Interpretations Compared To Physical
Communication Tests Between Formations.
(Douglas Boyd, Salah Al-Kubti, Osama Hamdy Khedr, Naeem Khan and Kholoud Al-Nayadi,
ZADCO; Didier Degouy, ADMA-OPCO; Antoine Elkadi and Zaid Al Kindi, Schlumberger)
Presented at ADIPEC in Abu-Dhabi during 5-8 November 2006.
− SPE 93556, A new production logging tool allows a superior mapping of the fluid velocities
and holdups inside the wellbore.
(Hanaey Dandarawy, Ali AlMutairi, Ghassan Abdouche, Osama Khedr (ZADCO) - Antoine
Elkadi (Schlumberger)).
This paper was presented at the 14th SPE Middle East Oil & Gas Show (MEOS) and
conference that was held in Bahrain during 12-15 March 2005.
− FSI or FloScan Imager
(Antoine Elkadi)
This paper was presented at the SDR (Schlumberger Doll Research center) reservoir
symposium that was held in Ridgefield during 4-6 October 2004.
− SPE 88705, Observations and lessons learned from a set of production logging data in
horizontal barefoot completions.
(Mohamed Al Hamawi, Saif Al Arfi (ADCO) - Antoine Elkadi, Ghina El-Itawi (Schlumberger)).
This paper was presented at the 11th Abu-Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and
Conference that was held during 10-13 October 2004.
− SPE 71715, Direct measurement of formation resistivity through steel casing solves a North
Sea production question.
(Roy Ferguson, AGIP UK Ltd; Jim White, Schlumberger Aberdeen; Antoine Elkadi,
Schlumberger Aberdeen).
This paper was presented at the annual SPE conference during 30 September - 3 October
2001.
− Presented about corrosion mechanisms and pipe integrity assessment at the SPE meeting
that was held in Abu-Dhabi on the 19th of October 2003.
− Presented about ABC (Analysis Behind Casing) and about pipe integrity at the ADIPEC event
that was held in Abu-Dhabi during October 2002.
− Presented about production logging interpretation at the SPE round table meeting that was
held at Aberdeen on the 5th of February 2001.
− Presented a talk about the GHOST (Gas Holdup Sensing Tool) technology and its
applications at the SPWLA meeting in Aberdeen on the 6th of October 1999