Litre Meter has supplied a number of VFF flowmeters for the Martin Linge field development project in the North Sea.

Litre Meter has supplied 14 positive displacement flowmeters including MF30, HF20, VFF8 and V125 models, all constructed in Duplex stainless steel. The meters were shipped to a Samsung/Technip consortium for use in a chemical injection skid on the project, which is being developed by Total E&P Norge in partnership with Petoro and Statoil.

The field, located 115 m below the surface on the Norwegian continental shelf 170 km west of Bergen, is named after Norwegian actor and WWII hero Martin Jensen Linge. Production of around 80,000 boed is expected to commence in 2016.

The platform is a manned wellhead jacket type platform with process, separation and compressor capabilities powered from shore. Its operations will be controlled remotely from shore using fibre optics. Litre Meter's flow controllers will be used to measure the flow of chemicals and were selected because they are capable of operating at varying flowrates and pressures.

The V125 meter was designed to measure the discharge of monoethylene glycol (MEG) at the wellhead pump. It was constructed from Duplex with a PVD coated SS nitronic rotor with two-inch ANSI 2500 RTJ connection and is pressure rated to 414 bar.

The VFF8 PD meter is also rated to 414 bar and has joint flange 2-inch 1,500 with direct mounted VRGS connections. The HF20 is pressure rated to 206 bar and MF30 flowmeters are pressure rated to 690 bar.

As standard, the VFF V125 rotary piston flow meters are pressure rated from 40 bar to 1,035 bar and constructed from 316 stainless steel. The meters are temperature rated between -40 and +150 degrees C and can be used with fluids in a range of viscosities from 0.8 to 2,000 centistokes (cSt) or greater. The normal flow range of the V125 is 0-6,000 l/h. The HF20 has a flow range of 0-1,200 l/h and the MF30 has a flow range of 0-90 l/h. Both have a viscosity range of 0.8 to 1 million cSt.

Under conditions of low temperature and high pressure, gas hydrates can solidify as crystals which may block pipelines and valves, impeding the transfer of oil and gas. This can result in a shutdown and the risk of explosion or unintended release of hydrocarbons into the environment.

MEG is injected at high pressure where there is a risk of hydrates (dew) forming then freezing at low temperature. Litre Meter VFF positive displacement flowmeters measure the correct amount of MEG needed to prevent hydrate formation.

The process, known as bullheading, forcibly pumps MEG into the bore hole to act as an 'antifreeze' to lower the freezing point of gas hydrate. This protects the wells' sub-surface valves from hydrates forming under high pressure and low temperatures during long shutdowns.

Litre Meter CEO Charles Wemyss said, "The complexity of this project demonstrates Litre Meter's ability to customise its meters to suit a range of applications that require accurate yet robust solutions.

"Subsea repairs and the associated loss of production are high cost, so protecting deepwater well bores from hydrate formation, plugging and organic fouling is a major flow assurance concern in offshore operations. Hydrate prevention strategies provide protection during normal operation, start-up and shutdown.

"Litre Meter's VFF flowmeter is ideally suited for use in the oil and gas industry and in particular for low flow/high pressure applications. Years of experience in chemical injection applications onshore and offshore have confirmed the instrument's capability to reliably measure fluids under extreme conditions of both temperature and pressure."

Source: worldoil.com

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