Multiphase Flowmeter Health Monitoring Strategy: Maximizing the Value of Real-Time Sensors and Automation for Industrial Revolution 4.0

Metering with multiphase flowmeters (MPFMs) is a well-proven intelligent field technology, which utilizes complex flow models to accurately measure multiphase flow (oil, gas, and water) on a real-time basis. The major realized benefits of utilizing MPFM real-time sensor data technology are reduced maintenance costs, optimized maintenance schedules, and improved safety via minimizing visits and predicting well performance. MPFMs also have the capability to perform comprehensive real-time test validation in a short period of time, making them a valuable tool. Leveraging their capabilities, engineers can perform various production analysis scenarios remotely using continuous data streaming to reduce and ultimately eliminate reliance on operators and vendors in remote fields. Nevertheless, such MPFMs require frequent maintenance, which could be quite difficult to manage when having a large number of meters. An in-house application was developed to support those objectives and to remotely monitor the health of all MPFMs on a real-time basis. The in-house analytics system comprises four modules: Field Overview, MPFM Overview, Well Test Management, and Alarm Management. The steps used to avail this kind of solution cover infrastructure requirements, visualization requirements, optimization, and prediction. The solution was designed as the major interface for engineers to proactively detect and prevent major MPFM component failures and highlight all types of projected MPFM component failures. It proactively harvests preset alarms, which leads to preventing internal MPFM parts from failing. These alarms are generated based on critical parameters measured by the MPFM such as rates, differential pressure (DP), and radioactive measurements. Annual savings are realized through use of the monitoring solution by minimizing costly offshore visits and optimizing the visits based on problematic MPFMs. The authors will discuss a newly developed MPFM health monitoring strategy based on real-time solutions, driving migration from a preventative to a predictive maintenance concept to reduce costs and optimize manpower time by eliminating unnecessary visits.