Flowmeters for Russian oil platform

Aylesbury, UK -- Litre Meter has supplied eight positive displacement flowmeters for the Orlan Platform on Sakhalin Island, Russia. The instruments are designed to reduce production costs by accurately measuring the flow of corrosion inhibitor in crude oil, the Aylesbury-based company announced 9 March.

Around 30% of the running costs of an oil rig is linked to the use of corrosion inhibitors to pre-treat crude oil before it is pumped shore side. If too much of these expensive chemicals is added to crude oil it has to be removed when the oil is refined, which can cost up to 10% of the price of a barrel of oil.

Corrosion inhibitor is added to the crude oil at between 0 and 25 litres/hr -- through 2-inch diameter ANSI 2500 RTJ flanges. It has a maximum viscosity of 285 cPs at the minimum operating temperature of minus 45°C.

According to Litre Meter, its VFF flowmeters measure the flow of the inhibitor chemical to an accuracy of 0.5% and is particularly suitable for these low flow/high pressure applications. The instrument, it said, has been tested and proved capable of operating reliably at 60 times NAS1638, class NAS12, which covers the ability to reliably measure fluids with very high particle contamination.

The eight new flowmeters will work alongside eight instruments that were previously installed by Litre Meter. Each instrument provides a pulsed output to a display mounted in a Zone 1 hazardous area. This is contained within an EExd enclosure, which also includes barriers to isolate the flowmeters.

The flowmeter is suitable for measuring liquids at pressure ratings up to 4,000 bar (60,000psi) and flow rates from 0.0004 l/m (0.5 litres per day) to over 270 l/min. It is of intrinsically safe design and manufactured to operate reliably at temperatures ranging from minus 40 to 100°C.