Analysis of the Behaviour of an Utrasonic Flowmeter Installed in an Oil Offloading System |
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| Olga Satomi Yoshida, Kazuto Kawakita, Marcos Valverde |
- Abstract:
- Application of ultrasonic flowmeters for fiscal metering has increased in the oil industry. High accuracy, a long-term reliability and no-moving parts are characteristics that define the ultrasonic meter as an attractive option to be considered in custody transfer and fiscal metering operations. The paper presents an analysis carried out on a metering system composed of two similar five beans ultrasonic meters, 24 inches size, maximum capacity of 8 000 m³/h, installed in series in an oil offloading system on board a FPSO. One of the meters operates as the fiscal meter, and the other as a master meter to run regular calibrations of the fiscal meter. The analysis was developed to evaluate the performance of the fiscal meter during the oil offloadings to tankers and to assess the meter factor drift along a series of provings against the master meter. Results showed that the ultrasonic meter presented high repeatability and good stability of the meter factor, allowing flow measurement uncertainties that fully complied with the requirements for fiscal metering based on the OIML R117 accuracy class 0.3.
- Keywords:
- Ultrasonic flowmeter, oil fiscal metering, calibration interval, FPSO
- Download:
- IMEKO-TC9-2004-034.pdf
- DOI:
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