Standards Development

Scope

This document specifies requirements and gives recommendations for assessment of the service environment, and the selection of metallic materials used in oil and gas production in H2S-containing environments, where the failure can pose a risk to the functionality of the equipment, to the health and safety of the public and personnel or to the environment.

This document is not intended for application to equipment for carbon capture, utilisation and/or storage (CCUS, CCS) or downstream oil and gas (for downstream applications see ISO 17945/NACE MR0103), but the guidance and principles can be applied by the equipment user for these applications.

This document addresses the selection of carbon and low alloy steels, cast irons, corrosion-resistant alloys and other alloys for resistance to damage mechanisms that are a consequence of H2S, or which are exacerbated by H2S. This includes sulphide stress cracking, hydrogen-induced cracking, stepwise cracking, stress-oriented hydrogen-induced cracking, soft-zone cracking, galvanically induced hydrogen stress cracking and stress corrosion cracking. Some of these mechanisms can also occur in environments that do not contain H2S, but these are not included in the scope of this document. These are not included in the scope of this document. Materials with established service limits, or which have a successful history of application are listed. A path for qualifying and accepting materials that are not listed is described in ISO 15156-3.

NOTE H2S can also influence degradation mechanisms other than cracking, including general and localized corrosion.

This document is intended primarily for equipment users and other parties that select and accept materials and equipment for service in H2S-containing environments. It stipulates when materials need to be specified to be in conformance with ISO 15156-1 or qualified in conformance with ISO 15156-3.

All oil and gas production equipment categories handling H2S-containing fluids are within the scope of this document, including but not limited to:

a) drilling, well construction, and well-servicing equipment;

b) wells including subsurface equipment, gas lift equipment, wellheads, and tree equipment;

c) flow-lines, gathering lines, field facilities, and field processing plants;

d) water-handling, injection and disposal equipment;

e) gas-handling and injection equipment including those used for CO2 enhanced oil recovery;

f) natural gas treatment plants (for gas sweeting plants see also API RP 945);

g) transportation pipelines for liquids, gases, and multi-phase fluids.

Exclusions to the scope of this document are given in Table 1.

Please see drafts for Table 1 — List of exclusions to this document