Norfolk

UNITED-KINGDOM

Metrics Oil & gasN

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Antech’s laboratory in Great Yarmouth has mainly been working with the Oil & Gas indus-try since its foundation in 1988. It’s located on the east coast of the UK in Norfolk, where 40% of the UK gas production is piped ashore from over 60 fields below the Southern North Sea into the gas receiving terminal at Bacton. Antech, a Trescal company, has specialized in supplying metering calibration services to the Oil & Gas industry since its formation.

The Oil & Gas companies operating in these areas have specific key measurements needs regarding their activities, the main two being fiscal metering and allocation metering.

Fiscal metering, also known as custody trans-fer metering, refers to the measurement and change of ownership of gas, gas condensate or crude oil (hydrocarbons) at the point where the exploration company (for example Shell, BP, etc.) sells the product to the distribution com-pany. From the exploration companies’ stand-point, fiscal metering systems can be viewed as central to the collection of their own revenues. From a legal and fiscal standpoint, fiscal mete-ring systems are used to determine production

Expertise

ANTECHA REFERENCE FOR OIL & GAS METERING

rates that will ultimately generate Petroleum Revenue Tax for the Government.

Allocation metering refers to continuous measurement by which a quantity of hydro-carbons metered to custody transfer standard is attributed to different sources.

This level of metering is usually employed because the exploration companies all trans-port their gas through the same pipelines from sea to shore. This is how they know the exact quantity which belongs to them. This is particularly the case in the North Sea where most of the gas comes from offshore plat-forms through shared pipelines.

The accuracy of those two measurements is a key point for these companies, as it helps determine the quantity of gas they will be sel-ling in the end. Specific instruments are used to deliver these key measurements; Antech calibrates and certifies the Gas Density Trans-ducers (GDT), the Differential Pressure Trans-mitters (DPT) and the Orifice Plates (OP). These instruments are calibrated periodically in the lab, and the companies’ engineers also

perform regular field checks on-site using test equipment that is also calibrated by Antech.

The Gas Density Transducer is an instru-ment that measures the density of the gas at the metering station. It is composed of a cylin-der that oscillates at a frequency proportional to the gas density. The Differential Pressure Transmitter measures the pressure diffe-rential that is produced by the gas flowing through the orifice plate. The Orifice Plate is a primary flow element that produces a dif-ferential pressure between the upstream and downstream pressure ports that is proportio-nal to the flow rate through the orifice. The companies’ Flow Computer is programmed with the features of the OP, density/frequency coefficients of the GDT, pressure range of the DPT and other parameters, such as pipeline pressure and temperature, and will process the signals received to obtain the mass flow rate and totalized flow of gas.

Antech calibrates the metering instru-ments in the lab. The calibration laboratory has been UKAS ISO/IEC 17025 accredited since 1995 for the parameters.

Orifice Plate

JIM GUNN,UK TECHNICAL MANAGER

Houston

UNITED-STATES

Antwerp (Belgium) is the number one petrochemicals location in Europe and the number two in the world, after Houston, Texas. This is where this sector’s big companies and their various partners are concentrated. The sensitive nature of their production, hydrocar-bons, means that safety must be given priority in all operations. This is guaranteed by our comprehensive control of the various produc-tion stages, starting with the checking and cali-bration of measuring devices.

Metrology applied to the petrochemicals sector requires expertise in an extremely wide range of skills, specifically in the pressure, tempe-rature and mechanics sectors. With 100 staff, 70 of them technicians, the Antwerp laboratory is a leading player in metrology for the petrochemi-

Houston, Texas is known for one thing in particular: Oil a.k.a. “Black Gold” or “Texas Tea”… From finance to dril-ling technologies and beyond, Houston leads the way in research and development of fossil fuels around the world.

Quality has been at the forefront of manufacturing in the oil industry for many years and with the advent of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, quality and calibration have become more important than ever in the manufacturing process. Companies are becoming more aware of the quality and reliability of products, especially when those products are placed a mile or more under the ocean. Trescal Texas (Houston & Dallas) has teamed up with many key players in the oil patch to assist with and in some cases manage calibration programs entirely. Duties include: calibrations performed to ISO/IEC 17025; mana-gement of the calibration database; outsourcing; custo-mer service; reporting and tracking of non-conformance.

In February 2011, Trescal was contacted by a com-pany in Houston known as a global leader in engineering parts, materials, and hydraulic valves for the oil industry. The current calibration provider and internal personnel were having a difficult time tracking calibration events

COMPREHENSIVE KNOW-HOW AND RELIABILITY SERVING THE

Metrics Oil & gas

SECTOR-BASED SUPPLEMENT TO THE TRESCAL GROUP IN-HOUSE NEWSLETTER

Director of Publication: Olivier DelrieuManaging Editor: Catherine Bourdoncle Editorial Committee: Catherine Bourdoncle & Francis RichardDesign and Production: Agence 9Photo Credits: Trescal, FotoliaAcknowledgements: John Chambers, Guy de Decker, Jim Gunn, Randy Johnson

QUALITY & CUSTOMER SERVICE IN THE OIL & GAS UNIVERSE

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trescal.com

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“IT IS DURING THE EXTRACTION PROCESSES THAT THE RISK IS HIGHEST, AS THIS IS DONE AT VERY HIGH PRESSURE AND THE TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE MEASUREMENTS ARE ABSOLUTELY VITAL” GUY DE DECKER, PRODUCTION MANAGER AT THE ANTWERP LABORATORY, EXPLAINS.

JOHN CHAMBERS, SENIOR SALES ACCOUNT MANAGER

cals sector. Trescal NV thus calibrates and checks the temperature probes and transmitters used in these extractions, and the instruments that control these transmitters’ indicators. These ope-rations are mainly performed in the “shutdown” phases; this is the moment when production is suspended to perform maintenance operations on companies’ installations and equipment. Not exceeding 48 hrs, these phases are critical for Trescal NV: teams must calibrate and check the temperature probes in a very short time. To meet these deadlines and guarantee the quality of the service, Trescal NV prepares these opera-tions upstream and provides customers with its best technicians, who have expertise in different fields and also have a State-issued certificate authorising them to work in the petrochemicals sector on customers’ sites.

PETROCHEMICALS INDUSTRYTrescal NV’s teams operate with very strict

time and quality constraints, thus guaranteeing the safety of a part of these installations. The relationship with the sector’s customers is based on confidence built up over the years, a good example of which is an episode that strengthened the partnership between Trescal and one of them: probes had been sent to Tres-cal with incorrect calibration ranges, following a batch mix-up. Exemplary management of tra-ceability by Trescal ensured that the problem was solved and this strengthened the custo-mer’s confidence in Trescal and enabled both parties to optimise their validation and espe-cially communication processes: the technical characteristics of instruments to be calibrated are now sent to Trescal by separate channels and calibration starts once the operations to be performed have been confirmed.

In Antwerp, Trescal NV has proved capable of building a stable customer base (Esso, Total, BASF, Monsanto, Bayer…) and the deve-lopment potential is significant, given the proximity of all subcontractors. The petroche-micals business was the pride of Trescal NV this year, which had orders from all the petro-leum companies for metrology services, thus rewarding the know-how and professionalism of all our teams.

and staying in touch with tools on the manufacturing floor. Quality was questionable and delivery of items that could not be calibrated on-site did not meet the client’s expectations. They required a new approach to meet their requirements, satisfy their internal quality system, and meet the demands of the Industry. We provided a transition plan and a comprehensive metrology solution consisting of asset management application software and resident calibration personnel augmented by weekly customer pickup and delivery service from our Houston laboratory. On the quality side, the technician interacts with the customer’s internal and external quality audit reporting and tracking of non-conformance (OOT) equip-ment, creating reports through Trescal’s web-based asset management software (TAM Online).

Trescal has become an integral part of the customer’s quality system. Trescal has also become a sought after consultant for the selection and purchase of major brands of measuring tools and equipment such as Mitutoyo. The customer is so satisfied with the solution that they have adopted this program for another Texas facility and fur-ther consideration is now underway to expand this model to other facilities in North-East USA and the UK.

RANDY JOHNSON, DIRECTOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT