Session: Advances in Materials for Oil and Gas Production (Part I of III)
On the influence of Acetate-Based Buffers on the Reliability of SSC Qualification Tests (C2026-00064)
Monday, March 16, 2026
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM Central
Location: 372 EF
Earn .5 PDH
Interested in reading the entire paper? Click on the "Paper" button below to read on the AMPP Knowledge Hub!
*Please note, if your registration came with access to the conference proceedings don't forget to login to your AMPP Knowledge Hub account to access the paper for free. If you login and don't have access to the paper, you can purchase the individual paper or purchase the entire conference proceedings on your Knowledge Hub account.
Sulfide Stress Cracking (SSC) and Hydrogen-Induced Cracking (HIC) are common failure mechanisms affecting carbon and low alloy steels in the oil and gas industry. For SSC, ISO 15156-2 defines different severity regions based on pH and the partial pressure of H₂S, which are considered the primary parameters influencing the risk of cracking in carbon steels and are key inputs for material selection. To control pH during testing, various buffer systems can be employed, most of which are based on the acetic acid/acetate pair. But in recent years, concerns have been raised within the industry regarding the potential impact of high-acetate buffer systems on qualification test outcomes. Acetates are reported to increase the corrosion rate of carbon steels and to alter the protectiveness of corrosion scales formed during sour service testing. To investigate these concerns, a test program was carried out on C125 casing steel as per API 5CT / ISO 11960. The experiments were designed to assess SSC resistance (pass/fail criteria), measure corrosion rates, and monitor hydrogen uptake in loaded specimens. Solutions with varying acetate concentrations were evaluated across different pH–pH₂S conditions to generate data supporting the discussion on how buffer system selection may influence qualification test results.
