The problem of how to meter oil-water-gas mixtures has been a significant one in the oil industry since the early 1980s. Since then, considerable research has been conducted into the development of a three-phase flowmeter suitable for use in an offshore environment. This work discusses why three-phase flow measurement is important, the principal strategies and technologies which may be used to meter three-phase flows, and reviews the status of some currently available solutions.Richard Thorn obtained a PhD from Bradford University in 1979 for work on cross-correlation flow measurement, and is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Fluid Engineering and Instrumentation at Cranfield University. Previous to this he was at Chr Michelsen Institute, Bergen, and then the School of Electronic Engineering, University of South Australia. He has co-authored three books and many papers on measurement science and instrumentation. His main research interests are the development of multiphase instrumentation and the structured design of measurement systems.

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Optimal quality of the product that leaves a water/oil/gas separator is determined by optimal separator design and control. Current control strategies for separators are extremely simple due to the lack of a reliable interface level measurement system. In this project a capacitance-based tomography system for interface imaging inside a separator has been developed and tested in the separator laboratory at Christian Michelsen Research (CMR). The tomography system consists of a capacitance sensor system, a data acquisition system and a model-based reconstruction algorithm implemented on a personal computer. The system can potentially measure the water, oil/water emulsion, oil and foam heights inside a separator on a process plant. In this project the tomograph has been tested, in a separator laboratory at CMR, for on-line imaging of water, oil and air interface levels (during waterloillair tests) and for oil, foam and air interface imaging (during oillair tests). The obtained accuracy is within 1 .O cm for all phases. The tomograph also detected the presence of foam, but due to problems with electrostatic charge generation, poor Stability in the measurements results. In a steel separator, however, it is expected that t h e electrostatic charge problem will probably not exist,

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Apparatus for measuring multiphase fluid flows comprising first and second sections each comprising a flow passage having means for making a dynamic pressure measurement on the multiphase fluid flow therethrough, the geometry of the first and second sections differing so as to affect a relationship between void fraction and velocity for the phases in a known manner. The difference in geometry