Everything you need to know about metering systems

Metering systems oil and gas are at the core of any plant functioning in the areas of oil and gas industries. Oil and gas industrial units are humongous in terms of operations and require special expertise on the most granular level. 

Besides this, government bodies and international independent authorities have provided a wide set of guidelines for equipment and their standards to ensure fair accounting standards, the safety of the plant and scope of operational efficiency. This is primarily why metering system oil and gas play such an important role in ensuring that the unit is performing not only at its optimal standards but also taking care of the regulatory benchmarks.

Metering systems commonly use differential flow meters to comprehend asset and revenue accounting purposes. In its most archaic form, metering systems leveraged mechanical chart recorders to record data. 

These systems required a high degree of maintenance lacked accuracy and many a time were the bottlenecks in the operational process. With the development of technology, they were replaced by more efficient and readily available remote terminal units which used inter-device communication and could record data to communicate it to a central system. 

Metering systems are majorly used in industries which deal with hydrocarbons such as crude oil, natural gas, LPG, LNG, gasoline, diesel and fuel oil. If one wants to check the efficiency of a newly operational plant, one can look into the efficiency and technology of its metering systems.

Metering systems, as such, play many roles on installation. Now metering systems are used for custody transfer, hence deriving the name Everything you need to know about metering systems. Metering systems, apart from the custody transfer metering system are also used for process application purposes. 

The process of installing a fully functional and industry standard compliant metering system depends upon the key steps, which starts with the validation and proving done on the perspective or the functional site. The process begins with a comprehensive feasibility test of the methodologies to be used on the site for metering purposes. These feasibility tests are carried out solely for validating them, so the entire set up can be calibrated as per the requirements of the methods to be used. 

This process of validation can require multifaceted technological options like laboratory calibration, verification stations, master meters, transfer standard calibration so on and so forth. 

Hence, while trying to set up a metering system, one should look for solutions providers who can provide a completely integrated system which can comply with the directions provided by the local authoritative bodies.

Post this method verification process, the next step involves planning for sampling and analysis of the fluid that shall be flowing like the bloodline of the entire operations. Gas chromatographs, due point analysis and standard conditioning are commonly used standard constituents of the sampling and analysis process. In addition to these, data storage and security are crucial.

Data storage and security are ignored by many solution providers. All the macro and micro data should be stored and available for future analysis when it comes to custody transfer and to ensure that the regulatory standards are taken care of.