Oil and gas steels surface hardening investigation by anodic plasma electrolytic treatment

•Anodic plasma electrolytic treatment is a quite promising processing for surface hardening most of oil and gas steels.•The depth of strengthened surface zone stretches up to 0.2 mm.•Increasing of microhardness in comparison to original structure for some steels can be up to 4.6 times.•Wear resistance of treated steels enhances from 27.7% up to 86.6% and depends on grade of steel.•Anodic plasma electrolytic treatment enhances the withstand of steels to corrosion in 5% NaCl solution.