This paper describes the concept of risk induced by corrosion and how an expert system can be used to help the corrosion engineer to assess the probability of a corrosion failure in a pipeline and in a well completion tubing. Traditional methods of assessing this probability rely extensively on historical data and with this approach it is difficult to assess the likelihood of failure. The application of an inductive method has been considered the correct approach to perform a complete analysis: the core of the analysis consists in the understanding of the problem (in this case the pipeline or well tubing failure due a corrosion occurrence) through the knowledge of the expert (inductive reasoning). The methodology utilises a set of computer codes to generate all the possible sequences of events that can be foreseen: to each event is then associated a probability of occurence.
Kevwords: Corrosion Risk, Corrosion probability, Soil corrosion.