THE Norwegian technology company Multi Phase Meters (MPM) has developed and qualified the first true combined multiphase and wetgas flowmeter. The technology uses electromagnetic tomography techniques to provide high accuracy three phase measurements of oil, gas and water production flow rates over the full GVF range (0-100 per cent) without the need for physical separation.
Initial development took place in Norway through a Joint Industrial Project (JIP) in partnership with Statoil, Shell, Total, ConocoPhillips and Eni. The latest and third JIP was started in June 2010 and will incorporate six additional companies – Anadarko, Chevron, GDF Suez, Petronas, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) and Woodside.
Now that the accuracy, sensitivity and robustness of the MPM meter has been proven time and again in installations and field trials worldwide, the new JIP will focus on development of software tools for ‘In-Situ Verification’ of the measurements.
Again, the subject of the JIP has been user-driven by operators who have experienced this weakness in all conventional technologies they have implemented to date. Once a meter has been installed, how does the operator verify that its flow measurements are correct? MPM has already developed a tool set for verifying basic measurement function and are now, along with their JIP partners, developing advanced verification methods for PVT configuration that bypasses the need for frequent PVT sampling.
Over the past year, MPM has moved from strength to strength and to full integration with its parent company FMC Technologies, and has received several high profile contract awards.
The most notable of these being large orders for subsea meters from several major international oil companies (Eni, Total, Chevron, and Statoil). These meters are to be installed in some of the industry’s most challenging metering environments where current technologies were deemed inadequate.
Successful field trials on ‘In-Situ Verification’ methods were recently carried out with clients in Alaska and Mexico and at flow loops in Norway (K-lab) and US (CEESI).
This has demonstrated that it is possible to obtain a good verification of the flow measurements using the MPM’s ‘In-Situ Verification’ methods and it has gained confidence with experienced operators who truly understand the complexity of multiphase and wetgas metering and convinced them to join with MPM in a development JIP.
In the Middle East region, MPM has successfully completed a six month long technology trial with PDO in Oman.
The aim of this trial was to qualify the MPM metering technology for their high and ultra-high Gas Volume Fraction (GVF) applications. MPM will soon install its first meter for PDO at the high GVF/H2S Harweel development where no other metering technologies have been qualified to operate.
