Methodologies for In Situ Detection of Subsea Meter Fouling

Abstract

The increasing global importance of subsea production drives the need for better accuracy in subsea measurements to allow precise reservoir management while ensuring accurate royalty assessment and production allocation. The work described here resulted from the previous RPSEA Project 1301, which showed that flow measurement errors of 10 to 20 percent were possible when meters were subject to scale or erosion. The objective of this work under RPSEA Project 4304 is to identify ways of detecting fouling in multiphase and wet gas meters, so that corrective measures can be taken before large errors occur. The effort consisted of two major parts: An examination of the state of the art in sensor and meter technology was conducted for the purposes of detecting and/or quantifying meter fouling. A number of ideas were considered. An evaluation of these and other technologies was performed to ultimately select the three most promising methods from the technology review. The criteria for choosing the most promising methods are discussed. The chosen methods were: The results of these developments show promise, can be used in parallel and are discussed in the paper.