Traditionally, in the selection of Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) for sour gas service, Corrosion Resistant Alloys (CRA’s) are screened first by their pitting resistance equivalent number (PREN) and then by
environmental cracking data generated in sour brine environments. The theory is that a pit occurs first, which provides a stress-riser for initiation of anodic chloride stress corrosion cracking (SCC). Among the primary
CRA’s currently used in the cold worked condition for OCTG in sour gas wells are alloy 825 (UNS N08825) and alloy 28 (UNS N08028). While alloy 28 has a somewhat higher PREN than alloy 825, alloy 825 has a
significantly higher nickel content. Slow strain rate (SSR) tests conducted in severe sour brine environments showed that the higher nickel content of alloy 825 results in better stress corrosion cracking resistance than that exhibited by alloy 28. The effect of nickel content on chloride SCC resistance of austenitic alloys was originally reported by H.R.Copson in 1959. This suggests that in some cases for austenitic alloys, the nickel
content of the CRA may be more important than the PREN in OCTG selection. Keywords: slow strain rate, C-ring, pitting, testing, evaluation, UNS N08825, UNS N08028, corrosion resistant alloy, nickel, stress corrosion cracking, oil patch, application, sour service.