Commercial metering is necessary and is used at recovery, transport, and processing facilities, oil and gas mains, and suppliers and consumers distribution stations.
Metering systems operate round-the-clock and automatically measure the weight and mass flow with a high accuracy, calculate and log medium quality indices, such as density, viscosity, composition, and energy content. A high level of automation provides for a minimum number of operating staff, system remote monitoring and control; increases the robustness of operation, ensure protection from an unauthorized access.
Depending on the objectives pursued in flow measurement, there are used inline and custody transfer/commercial measurement applications:
- An inline measurement is performed within an industrial facility in order provide an operational supervision and evaluate the results of company business activities;;
- A custody transfer measurement is performed between suppliers and consumers in delivery and acceptance operations (sale and purchase contracts).
Techniques, hardware, and requirements for the measurement accuracy in inline and custody transfer measurements are not the same. For the inline measurements, they may be set up by the company itself, whereas for the custody transfer measurements, the requirements for metering techniques, hardware, metering accuracy, and procedures are determined by the standards and other duly adopted normative documents and agreements of the parties.