European multiphase flow measurement standardisation programme underway

Scotland based specialists in flow measurement research and development NEL are leading a major research programme to enhance flow measurement standardisation across Europe between multiphase flow metrology testing facilities.

17 global partners are involved in the three year MultiFlowMet II project, including meter vendors, research specialists and multiphase test laboratories. It is part of the European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR), the main European programme for the scientific study of measurement.

Being able to measure multiphase flow is pivotal in subsea oil and gas production. However, field measurements continue to exhibit high measurement uncertainty, costing the oil and gas industry billions of dollars each year.

“The lack of standardised facilities and procedures for testing multiphase flow meters has led to test result variances between laboratories,” explained NEL’s David Crawford, the project’s coordinator.

“This project aims to harmonise multiphase flow measurements to better support efficient subsea exploration of new oil and gas reserves, by boosting confidence in both the measurement system and the meters that labs are testing. The project is vital to the future development of oil and gas production as it will drive improvements and enhance confidence in multiphase flow measurement.”

To ensure harmonisation, the research team will roll-out an extended intercomparison testing programme. This will involve the design and provision of a mobile instrumentation suite that can be moved to laboratories in order to enable comparison measurements to be taken. The project is also designed to gain an understanding of the factors that influence multiphase flow measurements, such as the geometrical features of each laboratory and the structure of the flow that develops in each set of flow conditions.