In upstream oil & gas production, flow measurements are critical for determining the health and longevity of the producing and injection wells. Many technologies such as multiphase flow meters and differential pressure (DP) measurements can be used.
In a Processing magazine article, Coriolis Flowmeters for Wet Gas Measurement, Emerson’s Justin Hollingsworth describes another alternative, Coriolis mass flow meters for wet gas wells.
Justin highlights the importance of these measurements:
Efficiently managing fields and optimizing production requires real-time insight into conditions at the wellhead; therefore, it is essential to have the best tools available.
Identifying issues can be difficult if the measurements are taken manually and infrequently.
The search for the source of a water breakthrough or a failed downhole completion can be laborious, slow work, as well as expensive to find in the available data while engineers wait for more well tests to trickle in. Because of this, more and more operators are considering direct wellhead measurement options to ensure optimal recovery and quick response to individual well production issues.
Coriolis meters such as Micro Motion Coriolis meters have the:
…ability to measure multiple variables, such as mass flow, density, temperature, tube damping (an indicator of phase fraction conditions) and time, it is clear that these meters are also capable of measuring liquid in gas. This type of measurement works by combing the variables at the wellhead with readily available process variables, such as density of liquid and gas at standard conditions.
Justin notes that the:
…same techniques that can detect entrained gas [hyperlink to explanatory video added] in a liquid process can be used to detect liquid mist in a gas process, when using certain Coriolis sensor designs. Testing shows drive gain in Coriolis meters with a large U-shaped geometry are sensitive to even small amounts of liquid.
Read the article for more on how the liquid fraction is measured and how research into these measurements and how they compare with separated, single phase flow measurements.
Visit the Coriolis Flow Meters for Mass, Volume, & Density section on Emerson.com for more on how this technology provides accurate, wide turndown range measurements. You can also connect and interact with other flow measurement experts in the Measurement Instrumentation group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.
