flotek.g 2017- “Innovative Solutions in Flow Measurement and Control - Oil, Water and Gas” August 28-30, 2017, FCRI, Palakkad, Kerala, India CUSTODY TRANSFER METERING Pranali Salunke Mahanagar Gas Ltd. Email: [email protected] Mobile: +91 9167910584 Mumbai, India custody transfer. A flow prover can be ABSTRACT installed in a custody transfer system While performing a flow measurement in a to provide the most accurate process control, the accuracy of measurement possible. measurement is typically not as important as the repeatability of the measurement. When There have been large changes in the controlling a process, engineers can tolerate instrumentation and related systems some inaccuracy in flow measurement as used for custody transfer. Meters with long as the inaccuracy is consistent and intelligence i.e. with modern repeatable. In some measurement electronics, software, firmware and applications, however, accuracy is an connectivity can perform diagnostics extremely important quality, and this is and communicate information, particularly true for custody transfer. The alarms, process variables digitally. money paid is a function of the quantity of fluid transferred from one party to another. Small KEY WORDS error in the metering can add up to big losses Custody Transfer, Ultrasonic flow in terms of money. meter, Coriolis meter, Standards, proving Until now, five technologies are used when it comes to custody transfer metering: 1.0 INRODUCTION 1. Differential Pressure (DP) flow meters Custody Transfer in oil and gas 2. Turbine meters industry refers to the transactions 3. Positive displacement meters involving transporting physical 4. Coriolis meters substance from one party to another. 5. Ultrasonic meters The term "fiscal metering" is often Many aspects are taken into consideration interchanged with custody transfer, when a flow meter is to be selected for and refers to metering that is a point of custody transfer metering. The accuracy, a commercial transaction such as repeatability, rangeability, availability in when a change in ownership takes higher line sizes etc are some of the factors place. Custody transfer takes place which suggest why multipath Ultrasonic flow any time fluids are passed from the meters are the most preferred in custody possession of one party to another. transfer metering systems. Factors affecting accuracy are vital parameters to be studied during designing of a custody transfer metering system. There are meteorological parameters, installation parameters, and external interferences that can disturb the accuracy of the flow meter. Periodic proving of the flow meter is necessary to confirm or re-establish the performance accuracy of the accounting meter before, during, and after a Figure 1-A custody transfer depiction 1 Measurement errors in custody transfer can be natural gas. In 1930, the AGA issued Report very expensive, hence custody transfer and AGA-1 to cover the use of DP flowmeters with fiscal metering are regulated in most countries orifice plates for custody transfer applications. by National Metrology standards and involve Differential pressure (DP) flowmeters are used for the custody transfer of liquid and gas to government taxation and contractual measure the flow of liquid, gas, and steam. The agreements between custody transfer parties. DP flowmeter consist of a differential pressure Custody transfers are also influenced by a transmitter and a primary element. The primary number of industry associations and standards element places a constriction in a flow stream, organizations such as American Gas while the DP transmitter measures the Association (AGA), American Petroleum difference in Industry (API), US National Institute for pressure upstream and downstream of the Standards and Technology (NIST), constriction. Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) In many cases, pressure transmitters and in Germany, China Metrology Certificate primary elements are bought by the end-users (CMC), and gosudarstvennyy standard (GOST) from different suppliers. However, several in Russia. vendors have integrated the pressure transmitter with the primary element to form a complete flowmeter. The advantage of this is Custody transfer applications require more that they can be calibrated with the primary than an accurate flowmeter. There are a element and DP transmitter already in place. number of critical components that comprise a complete metering system including: • Multiple meter runs with multiple meters in parallel • Pressure and temperature transmitters • Flow computers • Quality measurement - For gas energy content, online gas chromatography - For liquids, sampling systems and water monitoring • In-situ calibration using provers or Figure 2-A typical orifice plate steam flowmetering master meters DP meters can operate in very harsh • Automation environments and also feature a high degree of robustness and reliability. A disadvantage of 2.0 Custody Transfer Metering using a DP flowmeters is that they introduce a Methodologies and Measurement pressure drop into the flowmeter line. This is a Technologies necessary result of the constriction in the line that While there are many types of flow meters in is required to make the DP flow measurement general industrial use, many of these are not (fig.3) suitable for custody transfer. Generally, five technologies are used for custody transfer measurements. Differential pressure (DP) flowmeters are the oldest of the technologies and the first to be studied and approved for custody transfer for 2 main reasons were the higher accuracy of many turbine flowmeters, along with their greater rangeability and cost effectiveness. Turbine meters are also used for custody transfer of petroleum liquids. The disadvantage of turbine flowmeters is that they have moving parts that are subject to wear. Positive displacement (PD) meters are Figure 3-Pressure loss across the DP meter common for small line size applications. These flowmeters are highly accurate meters that are Turbine meters were approved by the AGA widely used for custody transfer through the AGA-7 in 1981. Turbine flowmeters of commercial and industrial water, as well as consist of a rotor with propeller-like blades that for custody transfer of many other liquids. PD spins as water or some other fluid passes over flowmeters have the advantage that they have it. The rotor spins in proportion to flow rate. The been approved by a number of regulatory turbine flowmeter is most useful when bodies for this purpose, and they have not yet measuring clean, steady, high-speed flow been displaced by other applications. It is of low-viscosity fluids. unusual to find PD meters in line sizes above 10”. PD meters excel at measuring low flows, and also at measuring highly viscous flows, because PD meters captures the flow in a container of known volume. Speed of flow doesn’t matter when using a PD meter. Downsides of PD meters include pressure drop and mechanical moving parts. Figure 5-The oval gear positive displacement method Figure 4-Cross section of a typical turbine meter Recent advances in measurement technology have introduced two highly accurate and In comparison to other flowmeters, the turbine repeatable flow measurement technologies to flowmeter has a significant cost advantage custody transfer: Coriolis mass flow meters and over ultrasonic flowmeters, especially in the multiple-path ultrasonic flow meters. larger line sizes, and it also has a favourable price compared to the prices of DP flowmeters, In oil and gas industry, as in many others, the especially in cases where one turbine meter transition from traditional-technology to new- can replace several DP meters. During the technology flowmeters is evident not only in 1990s, turbine flowmeters began to replace DP custody transfer applications, but also flowmeters, especially for gas applications. The elsewhere in the flowmeter world. However, 3 traditional meters still have the advantage of a do not have any moving parts and provide long large installed base. term stability, repeatability, and reliability. Because they are direct mass flow It has to be mentioned that any measurement measurement devices, Coriolis meters can instrument that relies on one measurement handle the widest range of fluids from gases to principle only will show a higher measurement heavy liquids and are not impacted by viscosity uncertainty under two-phase flow conditions. or density changes that often effect velocity Conventional measurement principles, based technologies (PD, Turbine, Ultrasonic). like positive displacement, turbine With the widest flow range capability of any flow meters, orifice plates will seemingly continue to technology, Coriolis can be sized for low measure, but will not be able to inform the user pressure drop. This combined with the fact that about the occurrence of two-phase flow. Yet they are not flow profile dependent helps modern principles based on the Coriolis eliminate the need for straight runs and flow effect or ultrasonic flow measurement will conditioning which enables custody transfer inform the user by means of diagnostic systems to be designed with minimal pressure functions. drop. Coriolis Mass Flowmeters Unlike other meters, Coriolis flowmeters are not volumetric flowmeters, but instead measure mass flow directly. As fluid flows through a Coriolis flowmeter, the measuring tubes twist slightly due to the Coriolis force. The natural vibration frequency of the tubes changes with the mass flow of the fluid (fig.6). Figure