Journal of Minerals & Materials Characterization & Engineering , Vol. 11, No.6, pp.559-568, 2012 jmmce.org Printed in the USA. All rights reserved 559 Comparative Study of Corrosion Sensitivity of Selected Ferrous Metals in Crude Oil Ogundare, O., Momoh, I.M., Akinribide, O.J., *Adetunji, A.R., 1 Borode, J.O., + Olusunle, S.O.O. and + Adewoye, O.O. Engineering Materials Development Institute, Akure, Nigeria. *Prototype Engineering Development Institute, Ilesa, Nigeria. 1 Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. + National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, Abuja, Nigeria. Corresponding Author: suppiedee@yahoo.com ABSTRACT Corrosion characteristic of selected ferrous metal samples (plain and alloyed ductile iron, low carbon steel and austenitic stainless steel) in crude oil was investigated using weight loss method. The microstructures of the coupons were taken before and after corrosion test. It was observed that all the materials experience gain in weight within the first 10 days in the medium. This weight gain is attributed to the formation of hard and passive phases which acted as strong protective barriers to corrosion. It was also observed that the rate of corrosion decreased with increase in the number of days of exposure for all the coupons, this may be probably due to the deposition of corrosion products that tend to shield the corroding surface from further corrosion attack, there by depressing the rate of corrosion. This result shows that despite initial low corrosion resistance of plain ductile iron, it can still be considered, alongside other materials, for application in pipelines and storage facilities for crude oil. Keywords: Corrosion, agitation, ductile iron, Austenitic Stainless Steel, Mild steel and crude oil. 1. INTRODUCTION Ferrous materials which include steels and cast irons of various compositions have all demonstrated their usefulness in structural (e.g residential buildings, bridges etc) and domestic