Abstract
Multi-phase flow meters are of huge importance to the offshore oil and gas industry. Unreliable measurements can lead to many disadvantages and even wrong decision-making. It is especially important for mature reservoirs as the gas volume fraction and water cut is increasing during the lifetime of a well. Hence, it is essential to accurately monitor the multi-phase flow of oil, water and gas inside the transportation pipelines. The objective of this review paper is to present the current trends and technologies within multi-phase flow measurements and to introduce the most promising methods based on parameters such as accuracy, footprint, safety, maintenance and calibration. Typical meters, such as tomography, gamma densitometry and virtual flow meters are described and compared based on their performance with respect to multi-phase flow measurements. Both experimental prototypes and commercial solutions are presented and evaluated. For a non-intrusive, non-invasive and inexpensive meter solution, this review paper predicts a progress for virtual flow meters in the near future. The application of multi-phase flows meters are expected to further expand in the future as fields are maturing, thus, efficient utilization of existing fields are in focus, to decide if a field is still financially profitable.
Highlights
One major problem in the offshore oil and gas industry is monitoring of multi-phase flow consisting of oil, water and gas in pipelines [1,2]
Since subsea instrumentation is extremely expensive and cumbersome, monitoring of the multi-phase flow is often reduced to the top of the vertical riser-pipeline and following pipelines, which is located above sea
Many multi-phase flow meters use differential pressure (DP) transmitters to measure the difference in the pressure in two given points inside the pipe
Summary
One major problem in the offshore oil and gas industry is monitoring of multi-phase flow consisting of oil, water and gas in pipelines [1,2]. The increase of PW is a result of maturing fields with increasing water cut This is supporting the importance of accurate measurements of the multi-phase flow and, hereby, the necessity of MPFMs. The increase in PW can be a huge problem, if the legal requirements are not adjusted to this change, as it will be difficult to respect the given law. The data for the decline curve analysis is based on performance history and observed production over time These datasets, which e.g., consist of the phase fraction and velocity of the multi-phase flow, need to be accurate to avoid errors in the model. The water decision of injection and injection volumes is dependent on the accuracy of the multi-phase flow measurements of the wells
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