Papers

Auditing evolved as a business practice as owners began to realize a standardized form of accounting must exist to prevent fraud. Financial audits made their way into businesses during the late 1700s. The industrial revolution brought about the separation of job duties beyond what a sole proprietor or family could oversee. Managers were hired to …

AUDITING ELECTRONIC GAS MEASUREMENT PER API MPMS, CHAPTER 21.1 Read More »

The measurement of oil & gas production has progressed considerably since the days of paper charts and manual integration. While still in use today, the technology has moved increasingly to microprocessor based flow computers. Such devices allow for greater measurement accuracy, increased control functionality, and are readily integrated into a company’s enterprise computer networks.

Today’s oil & gas industry is facing major technology changes in the field automation and control of devices. In the past nearly all SCADA and EFM devices only had a serial port to gather the data. These devices now have Ethernet ports along with serial ports, to communicate, control, program and transmit the data back to a company central data gathering/polling host. This change from mostly serial to mostly Ethernet communications has made the job of a field automation / measurement technician more complex. Setting up the Ethernet port in a meter involves knowing a number of parameters to ensure reliable communications of the data being polled. This article will cover some of the basic things a technician will have to know to connect to your company WAN (Wide Area Network).

From these consent or by an organization; be a “yardstick” to measure quantity, quality, and value; and be a “base or support” upon which one can built procedures and policies. definitions, it appears that one could conclude that a standard should have value; be established by general Standards have been developed and are continually being …

An Overview of Industry Standards Related to Natural Gas Measurement Read More »

The American Gas Association published Report No. 9, Measurement of Gas by Multipath Ultrasonic Meters 2nd Edition [Ref 1] in April 2007. Report 9 details recommended practice for using multipath gas ultrasonic meters (USMs) in fiscal (custody) measurement applications. This paper reviews some of history behind the development of AGA Report No. 9 (often referred …

AN OVERVIEW AND UPDATE OF AGA 9 Read More »

We say Advanced Wireless Data Radio Communication Systems Design Process not because this is a more in- depth andmoretechnicalprocess,butbecause thesystemsinvolvedarecomplexinnatureandmustbecarefullydesignedand programmed. If anything, what I want to do is teach you a more simplified approach and technique to design a SCADA or Telemetry project, but one which you do the same whether the system is …

ADVANCED COMMUNICATION DESIGNS Read More »

This paper describes the current contents of the United States (U.S.) orifice flow metering standard − American Petroleum Institute (API) Manual of Petroleum Measurement Standards (MPMS) Chapter 14.3, “Orifice Metering of Natural Gas and Other Related Hydrocarbon Fluids,” Part 2, “Specification and Installation Requirements.”[1] This document is also known as American Gas Association Report No. …

A REVIEW OF API MPMS CHAPTER 14.3/AGA REPORT NO. 3 − PART 2 Read More »

Can the effectiveness of skills training be measured? A Region Director friend of mine who works for a large natural gas pipeline company complained that his new measurement employees (new hires and experienced personnel that have transferred into gas measurement) are not performing required tasks and activities to his expectations. “My over-pressure protection & measurement equipment supplier, two months ago, presented a free, 1-day training session on “How to Test a Relief Valve Set Point.” I paid for donuts and lunch! We told them exactly how to do it. “My employees just don’t get it.”
This response, a reaction created from frustration, plays out time and time again. Although this Director recognizes a performance deficiency, his statement is directed at a result (actual outcome) rather than the cause(s) that creates his concern. Many companies today are implementing proactive workforce readiness strategies. They are no longer simply paying lip service to the need for effective training programs, devising reactive measures, or creating explanations regarding why employees don’t understand and cannot perform the skills expected of them.
To begin the process of determining the cause(s) of learning deficiency, we need to understand something about the instructors learning model, the learning objectives, how the training content was presented, and how learner’s knowledge is tested (assessed).
As a Technical Training Manager working in the industry, I was often told, “Just tell them how to do it” and they will be fine. They don’t need to know why. Operation management was often disappointed when they determined their “Tell Them How” theory of training didn’t work. Little, if any, knowledge was transferred: none may have been measured. The actual cost of effective training (including gains in productivity) pales when compared to the increased cost of inaccurate measurement, delayed product deliveries, unscheduled downtime, damaged equipment replacements, impaired and strained customer relations, and re-training.

This paper provides an overview of the recently released Gas Quality Management Manual [1] that was developed by the American Gas Association Transmission Measurement Committee over a period of roughly seven years. The manual pulls together a wide range of information and provides context that allows both the expert and the novice to understand the …

AN OVERVIEW OF THE AGA GAS QUALITY MANAGEMENT MANUAL Read More »

The necessity to be able to take a representative sample of the hydrocarbon product known as natural gas is to ensure proper accounting for transactions and efficient product processing. The various sampling methods that are available and the most widely known options and limitations of these methods are discussed here. The appropriate equipment to use …

NATURAL GAS SAMPLING For CUSTODY TRANSFER Read More »