Subsea Water Cut Meter
Topside commodity - Subsea rarity
In onshore and topside offshore fields, water cut meters and probes have been used for nearly 50 years, and is a commodity that in some form or shape is deployed in nearly all conventional oil field developments.
However, most water cut meters are designed for two-phase (oil & water) applications, while most subsea fields transport unprocessed multiphase flow to the surface. The traditional requirement for water cut meters for processing facilities applications (e.g. production separators) are thus rarely found subsea.
For the same reason, most major suppliers have been slow to adapt their technology for subsea use.
Features
The Sentech Subsea Water Cut Meter, however, does not have the same constraints as many other technologies, and offers features that hugely expands potential use and benefit for subsea applications:
- Based on the same highly robust SeCaP sensor as the conventional meter
- Measures 0 – 100% Water in multiphase flow as well as in two-phase flow
- Can be designed for in-line installation in any subsea tree or manifold pipe diameter
- Is completely non-intrusive – can be installed even where pigging must be possible
- Requires only 15–30 cm flange-to-flange spacing, depending on line diameter
- Detects whether the flow is well mixed, separated or sluggish
The Sentech Subsea Water Cut Meter utilizes the same highly robust SeCaP sensors as the conventional Sentech Water Cut Meter, along with dual redundant power and communication channels. As one meter utilizes several SeCaP sensors (6 in above design), it also offers multiple levels of redundancy on the primary measurement.
Meter body material and wetted parts, as well as process and electrical connections, can be supplied to customer specifications.
Typical applications
As the Sentech Subsea Water Cut Meter measures water also in multiphase flow (as a percentage of total volume of Oil+Water+Gas), the most useful application for subsea fields is for real-time monitoring of the water production from each well. This allows operators to determine which wells are causing changing water cut on the commingled flow that reaches the surface, and also provides immediate warning of water breakthrough at each well.
Other potential applications include:
- Wet Gas monitoring – for prediction and prevention of hydrates, water breakthrough etc.
- Slug detection – for early warning when slugs are entering the tie-back to the surface process facilities
- Production separator – when subsea processing is deployed
- Subsea boosting – for monitoring inlet flow to wet gas compressors and multiphase pumps
Do you have any questions about our Subsea Water Cut Meter?
