PREDICTING THE CONDUCTIVITY OF WATER-IN-OIL SOLUTIONS AS A MEANS TO ESTIMATE CORROSIVENESS

Corrosion of steel equipment from oil-containing water has been a sign ificant problem in the petroleum industry for many years. Despite this known problem, essentially no methodical study has been performed to elucidate the mechanisms. Moreover, no attempts have been made to pred ict corrosion in predominately oil-based systems. The low water-cut po rtion of water-in-oil (w/o) solutions was studied to develop a means t o calculate the conductivity of these solutions and thereby allow a pr eliminary assessment of the potential corrosiveness of these solutions .