Well Design & Well Completion under Acidic Conditions: Mitigation of corrosion of the wells of Krafla

Abstract

Acidic wells are reported from several high temperature geothermal fields around the world, including the Geysers, Larderello, Miravalles, Los Humeros, Tatun, Taiwan, Saint Lucia, Windward Islands, and the Krafla. General corrosion rates can significantly influence the production, and in the case of well failures can lead to catastrophic consequences. The designer of the well has to choose whether to use expensive but corrosion resistant materials during the well completion, sacrifice the casing and the production liner and choose a cheaper grade steel or try to solve the corrosion problem by chemically treating the well. This work will try to determine the best potential corrosion resistant materials that can be applied during the completion of a geothermal well, review state of the art information about scaling inhibition due to increased iron concentration and calculate the potential dose rate of caustic injection in the case of well KJ-36.