Natural Gas Measurement Fundamentals
December 5-6 2023 | Live Streaming Online
A BankWebinars.com Program
Click Here to register $1295
If you are unable to attend at the scheduled date and time, we make recordings available to all registrants for three business days after the event
Professionals in the energy industry often grapple with the complexities of accurately measuring natural gas quantity, quality, and value, hindered by intricate regulations and operational variables. This Natural Gas Measurement course will renew your grasp of gas measurement’s scientific foundations and equip you with the know-how of established methods, equipment, and compliance protocols. By navigating gas properties, metering principles, quality assessment, and regulatory nuances, this course empowers you to make sound decisions, ensure precision in measurements, and adeptly maneuver within industry standards.
This course will also discuss:
- Supply management
- Classes of natural gas
- Flow measurement
- Back-office systems and business practices
- Equipment calibration
Learning Outcomes
- Discuss the business, regulatory and operational drivers behind measurement.
- Review what natural gas is made of and how it behaves, both physically and chemically
- Identify the main types of metering devices and how they work
- Discuss the methods of measuring gas quality and the rationale behind it
- Discuss the types of equipment used to measure pressure, temperature, composition and contaminants
- Analyze the role and functions of a measurement back-office system, and how it integrates with other business systems
- Discuss how and why devices are calibrated, verified or maintained
- Obtain a cradle-to-grave perspective of the life cycle of measurement facilities
Agenda
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2023
9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Central Time
Why Measure?
- Business
- What is Custody Transfer?
- Business areas that rely on measurement data
- Contracts and Operating Agreements
- Operations
- Supply management
- Pipeline system operation
- Equipment and facility operation
- Regulatory
- Federal regulations
- Regional regulations
- International regulatory rules
Physical Properties of Natural Gas
- Classes of natural gas
- Pipeline quality
- Raw versus processed natural gas
- Blended mixtures (ex. hydrogen)
- LNG and CNG
- Non-traditional supplies
- Composition
- Alkane hydrocarbon compounds
- Inert compounds
- Contaminants
- Ideal and real gas properties
- What is the difference?
- Density and compressibility factor
- Definitions
- Surface plots
- Equations of State
- Volume, mass, energy
- Relations between volume, mass and energy
- What are ‘standard conditions’?
- Heating value, SOS and other properties
- Basics of combustion
- Higher vs Lower heating value
- Hydrocarbon dew point temperature
- Speed of sound and Critical flow
- Joule Thompson effect
- Enthalpy, entropy, and heat capacity
- Viscosity and Heat transfer coefficient
- Contaminants
- Free liquids
- Condensation and HCDP
- Solids
- H2S
- CO2
- Formaldehyde, oxides of nitrogen, etc.
Metering Principles, Types and Standards
- Head type meters
- Principles of operation
- Bernoulli’s theorem
- Pressure vs velocity
- What is fully developed flow?
- Orifice plates and meter run assemblies
- Plate holders
- Meter runs
- Flow conditioning
- Pressure taps
- Temperature probes
- Sample points
- Cone meters
- Basic configuration
- Strengths and limitations
- Nozzles and venturis
- Roles (calibration vs flow limiting)
- Critical flow
- Sub-sonic flow
- Pitot tubes
- Flow equations
- Overview
- Implementations and Verification
- Industry standards
- AGA Report #3
- ISO 5167
- Maintenance and calibration
- Turbine, PD and vortex shedders
- Principles of operation
- Turbine meters
- Rotor design
- Single/dual rotor
- Strengths and limitations
- Typical configuration
- Calibration and maintenance
- Industry standards
- Positive displacement meters
- Types
- Typical installations
- Vortex-shedding meters
- How do they work?
- Ultrasonic flow measurement
- Principles of operation
- Chords and paths
- Full bore vs reduced bore
- Signal propagation and detection
- Mathematical basics
- Flow conditioning
- Path configuration
- Single path
- Multi-path
- Wetted transducers versus clamp-on
- Coriolis force meters
- Principle of operation
- Typical designs and installations
- Strengths and limitations
- Density measurement
Gas Quality and Analytical Methods
- Sampling
- Sample probes, regulators, filters and cylinders
- Process analysers
- Composition vs species
- Chromatography
- Principles of operation
- Typical implementation
- Calculations and connectivity
Process Instrumentation and Flow Computing
- Pressure and temperature transmitters and recorders
- Transmitters and transducers
- Chart recorders and chart integration
- PLCs, flow computers, RTUs and distributed control systems
- What is a flow computer?
- Overview of API MPMS Chapters 21.1 and 21.2
- What is an RTU, PLC or Distributed Control System?
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Central Time
Back Office Systems and Business Processes
- Data collection, validation, storage and retrieval
- Measurement data processing systems
- SCADA systems
- Data historians
- Telecommunications
- Security
Measurement Data Analysis
- Overview of analysis processes
- Integration with business processes and field operations
Data Validation, Corrections
- Validation principles (validation vs calibration)
- Correction tools and techniques
- Rules and limitations (ex. NAESB)
End-of-month Processes
- Totalization and zone balancing
- Energy vs volume balancing
- Fuel gas and other usage
- What is Lost and Unaccounted-For Gas?
- Physical balance
- Commercial balance
- Error management and problem escalation
- Commercial balance reconciliation
Equipment Calibration and Maintenance
- Flow calibration
- Calibration vs Verification
- Tools and procedures
- Training and Certification
- Industry practices
- Witnessing
- In-situ verification
Milestone Events and Processes
- Design
- Participants and roles
- Engineering standards
- Construction
- Ensuring compliance and correct assembly
- Commissioning
- Typical steps
- Documentation
- Compliance checking
- Audits and Disputes
- Contractual and tariff limits
- What is a technical audit?
- Dispute resolution
- Re-configuration and retirement
- Upgrades
- Downgrades
- Change of function
- Inventory
Industry Standards, Commercial Contracts and Government Regulations
- Industry Standards from AGA, ISO, API and GPA
- Flow measurement-related
- Gas quality related
- Flow computing-related
- Contracts and tariffs
- Tariffs, Contracts and AGA Report 4a
- Overview of functions and roles
- Legal requirements
- Regulatory requirements and agencies
- FERC / NEB
- Measurement Canada
- State/Province
- BLM
- NAESB
Instructor
Warren Peterson
Warren Peterson is a measurement specialist with 42 years of experience in the oil & gas industry. Throughout his career he has worked for companies like Alliance Pipeline, TC Energy, and Kenonic Controls, specializing in flow measurement and the determination of fluid properties. Along with pipeline operating experience, he has been active in industry standards and research. On that foundation, he incorporated his own consulting company, Peterson Measurement, Inc. in late 2017.