Rivers State University of Science

& Technology
Nkpolu Oroworukwu.
Department of Petroleum Engineering
Seminar Presentation
By
Ogbonna Chinonso John(De.2008/1190)
Topic:
Three Phase Flow Measurement In The
Offshore Oil Industry
Lecturer: Engr.C.G.J Nmegbu.

OUTLINE

Definition Of Three Phase Flow Measurement

Types of three phase flow measurement
Importance Of Three Phase Flow Measurement
Measurement Strategies Use In Three Phase
Flow Measurement
Problems Associated With Three Phase Flow
Measurement
The Use Of Tomography To Solve The Problem

Definition Of Three Phase Flow

Measurement
As the name implies, is an instrument use
to meter oil-water gas mixture, suitable
for usage in an industrial environment.
ideally such an instrument needs to be
reasonably accurate(typically + 5% of each
phase), non-intrusive, reliable, flow regime
independent, and suitable for use over the
full component fraction range.

Types Of Three Phase Flow

Measurement
Component Fraction Measurement
Method: single energy gamma ray
absorption,multi energy gamma ray
absorption,impedence(capacitance and/or
resistance), pulsed neutron
activation(PNA)

Component Velocity Measurement

Method: cross-correlation, venturi, pulsed
neutron activation(PNA)

Importance Of Three Phase Face

Measurement
It reduce production losses(about 2%)
during well testing and improve the
monitoring and optimization of production.
It result in increase of production, increase
in recovery and a lower investment cost.
It measure accurately over the complete
fraction ranges of each component(water
cut range 0-90%,gas cut range 0-99%)

Measurement Strategies Use In

Three Phase Flow Measurement
The primary information required from
the three phase flow measurement
is the mass flow rate of
oil,water,gas component in the flow.
An ideal flow meter can not
determine the mass flow rate of
two-phase flow but each of the
phase flow component.
The alternative method use in
determining the mass flow rate is
called the interferential method. An
interferential method requires the
instantaneous velocity and crosssectional fraction of each phase to
calculate the individual mass flow
rate and total mixture mass flow
rate M.

M = avgrg + bvwrw +[1- (a + b)]voro

(1)
where rg, rw and ro are the density of
the gas,
water and oil fractions.

Problem Associated With Three

Phase Flow Measurement
Flow regime dependency

Individual phase velocity measurement

The Use Of Tomography To Solve

The Problems
The tomography techniques can be use in two
forms; either to produce a stand alone
tomography three phase flow meter or to
enhance the performance of existing instrument.
1. Tomography three-phase flow meter: is a
process of imaging multiphase flow. An example
of the tomography three-phase imaging system
is the dual sensor tomography

developed by the
university of bergen

2. Enhance the performance of existing

instrument: this is achieve in two ways; by
detecting the flow regime present or by
enabling the velocity of individual phase to
be measured.