The combination of the COVID-19 emergency health crisis and economic uncertainty in the oil and gas market has resulted in many operators and companies assessing their available resources to maximize productivity and efficiency.

These conditions have led to pipeline operators, midstream companies, E&P companies, and other companies to consider the use of contractors or hiring of new personnel to support oil and gas measurement in the field.

We are focused on ensuring that contractors or new field personnel have the proper resources and training to produce accurate and reliable measurements to protect the integrity of your company or operation.

The Source of Accurate and Reliable Oil and Gas Measurements

This information applies to measurement integrity for any company or operation under any circumstances, whether or not you are using contractors or hiring new personnel. However, it especially applies in these unique circumstances:

• Measurement procedures provide consistency;
• Consistency provides accuracy;
• Training on Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will make the difference.

Measurement SOPs are critical to guide the activity to be performed in the field. Then, providing training on the SOPs ensures that contractors or new hires can follow the procedures with consistency to produce accurate measurements.

Taking these steps of incorporating SOPs into your measurement function and ensuring understanding and competency will set you on the path to reduce the uncertainty of measurement.

3 Areas of Oil and Gas Measurement Support

Diving into the advantages of utilizing Standard Operating Procedures, measurement SOPs can support measurement personnel by helping them develop a deeper understanding of their critical tasks. We will focus on three critical areas.

1. Product Flow

Measurement personnel placed into action need a deeper understanding of the core factors that impact an oil and gas measurement: differential pressure (DP), static pressure, and temperature.

Because measurement does not happen in a vacuum, personnel also need to understand fluctuations in the measurement of a product flowing through a system.

Measurement SOPs provide guidance on how to account for DP, static pressure, and temperature, as well as the fluctuations that are present. This requires understanding and training to produce an accurate reading with consistency.

2. Using Field Devices

Measurement personnel also need to understand how to properly use field devices that support accurate and reliable measurement. Contractors may need training on the specific devices your operation uses, while new hires may need complete guidance and instruction on the basics of using field devices.

Measurement SOPs help create universal understanding for all levels of competency. This way, personnel can enter the field with confidence in how to use field devices such as flow computers to produce accurate measurements that comply with industry standards.

The benefits are increasing the accuracy of measurements, minimizing errors, reducing uncertainty about the accuracy of measurements, and spending less time re-performing measurements in the field to confirm results.

3. Back Office Support

Time is of the essence delivering measurements to the back office. Unfortunately, measurement uncertainty can lead to discrepancies when the back office is processing measurement readings.

Measurement SOPs provide guidance to measurement personnel on how to repeatedly produce accurate readings that reduce the potential for reconciliations or re-calculations.

You don’t want to have to send personnel back into the field to re-perform measurements. Getting it right the first time is critical to optimize efficiency, especially in today’s oil and gas market conditions.

Implement or Update SOPs to Support Personnel

If your company or operation currently does not have measurement SOPs or if you need to update existing SOPs, now is the time to ensure that contractors or new personnel are supported.

Utilizing measurement SOPs as part of your measurement policy helps personnel understand how to perform measurement, how to use field devices, and how to achieve consistency to reduce uncertainty for the business side of oil and gas measurement.

Gas Certification Institute (GCI) is available to help operators and companies implement or update measurement SOPs to support measurement integrity. We’ll work with you to build out SOP manuals that align with your product(s), personnel, devices, equipment, and back office set-up.

Contact GCI today to inquire about utilizing our SOP capabilities to increase accuracy and reduce the uncertainty of measurement.