Even with today’s availability of corrosion resistant alloys, carbon steels protected by corrosion inhibitors still dominate the material selection for pipework in the oil and gas production. Even though laboratory screening tests of corrosion inhibitor performance provides valuable data, the real
performance of the chemical carI only be studied through field trials which provide the ultimate test to evaluate the effectiveness of an inhibitor under actual operating conditions. A new generation of electrical resistance probe has been developed, allowing highly sensitive and immediate response to changes in corrosion rates on the internal environment of production pipework. Because of the high sensitivity, the probe responds to small changes in the corrosion rate, and it provides the corrosion engineer with a highly effective method of optirnising the use of inhibitor chemicals resulting in confidence in corrosion control and minimizing detrimental environmental effects. Key words: Field inhibitor trial, thin element, increase sensitivity