A project aimed at improving flow measurement in deepwater oil and gas projects is paying dividends, according to the technical session “A Window into Subsea Operations—from 10,000 Feet” presented on Tuesday at OTC 2015. The project, sponsored by research partnership RPSEA, is looking at technologies including a deepwater sampling system, deepwater subsea sensor and deepwater subsea clamp-on meter.

Chip Letton of Letton-Hall Group said seven independent smaller projects have been brought together under one umbrella to address gaps in deepwater measurement. “We all know that measurement is not the simplest thing to do even if you can get your hands on the meter, but when you put a meter on the seafloor and expect it to last for 20 to 30 years without even touching it, the challenges are great,” Letton said.

“The deeper you get, everything gets bigger, not only the impact of the problems but the cost to the environment and the cost to the stakeholders,” he continued. “Deeper water is just more difficult. Measurement is really the only way to understand this. You have really got to have some instruments to be able to understand what is happening on the seafloor.”

Joint-industry project (JIP) partners Chevron, ConocoPhillips, GE, Statoil and Total provided funding and expertise to the project. “We tried to assemble the smartest minds we could to work on these problems,” Letton said. “They are not easy so we tried to get the best people we could from our JIP and our contractors.”

He stressed the importance of the work, saying that a meter that was not working accurately could fluctuate with readings as much as 2% higher or lower than they should be. That, in turn, could prove “catastrophic” for somebody, particularly in massive deepwater wells. Research on a deepwater subsea clamp-on meter is essential to prevent the equipment from “going off in the weeds.”

The JIP has investigated a means of being able to clamp a meter onto the outside of a pipeline and use electromagnetic measurements to measure what is flowing through the pipe. Work also is being done to check for subsea kicks by monitoring small changes in the mud density at the bottom of the mud line in wells.

“RPSEA and the [U.S.] Department of Energy gave us the bulk of our funding,” Letton added. “For those of you who are U.S. taxpayers and get disgusted at how your money is being spent, this is a good use of your money. It is a good model and [has] worked really well.”

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