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Emerson’s Roxar 2600 MPFM
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| Sentech’s Water Cut Meter |
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Most applications measure one type of flow, either liquid, gas, or steam. This is called single phase flow measurement. Multiphase flow measurement, a relatively new technology, measures fluids with more than one phase, primarily in the oil & gas industry. When fluid initially comes out of a well, it often consists of a mixture of oil, gas, and water. While these different fluids are typically separated into their individual components at separators near the wellhead, it is also sometime advantageous to measure the fluid before it is separated.
Watercut meters, on the other hand, have been a mainstay within the oil & gas industry for decades to help well operators understand the percentage of water in total liquids produced at the wellhead. In 2016, Flow Research published a second edition on the worldwide multiphase flowmeter market and included a module on the worldwide watercut market. We found that as the demand for greater accuracy has increased, multiphase and other alternative technologies are encroaching on the watercut market.
In addition to offering better performance, multiphase flowmeters reduce the total number of components an operator needs to properly evaluate wellhead flows. They are now used for multiple purposes, including custody transfer, well testing, and allocation metering. One disadvantage of these meters is that they are extremely expensive, so they tend to be used mainly on high producing wells, and not all wells produce enough oil or natural gas to justify the expense of a multiphase meter.
The demand for better accuracy has been driven by three primary factors:
1) The need to have reliable data to effectively manage each well
2) The need for predictive information to plan for secondary recovery investments
3) The emergence of and growth in new field drilling techniques such as directional drilling and line pooling
These three drivers for higher accuracy exist within the context of an increase in more difficult offshore and subsea exploration & production, as well as the new plays in shale/sand oil and gas production.
While there are still only a limited number of suppliers, multiphase meters still bear watching, especially considering the high price of oil and the continually expanding search for sources of energy.
Related studies
The World Market for Gas Flow Measurement, 5th Edition
The World Market for Oil and Oil Flow Measurement |
