American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2017 - 74

posure of $164,000 at an oil price of $50
a barrel. One operator's efforts to verify
the extent of measurement variability
within a team of experienced gaugers indicated volume discrepancies as high as
±8.0 percent.

Lack of visibility to production separator upsets will send oil to the water
tank or water to the oil tank. If not
detected, oil in the water tank will be
lost, especially if the operator is using a
third-party water hauler during water

FIGURE 1
LACT Unit Payback (in Months)

$450
$400
$350
$300
$250
$200
$150
$100
$50
$0

3,000

2,000

1,000
500
Annual Fiscal Exposure

Simple Payback (months)

Well Pad Production bbl/d
FIGURE 2
Truck LACT Unit

20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Months

$/1,000s

LACT system (±0.25% error) versus manual gauging (1% error) at $50/bbl oil price

transfers. Unaccounted-for or unauthorized
hauling of produced oil in the water tank
from a multiple-well pad facility could
exceed $1 million a year in lost revenue
if not accurately monitored and recovered.
Table 2 shows an example from a sixwell pad where each well averages 900
bbl/d in production. Excess water can
lead to an unexpected oil tank capacity
loss, resulting in a spill or a well being
shut in from a high-level alarm.
Many operators now are realizing the
economic benefits of automated level
measurement solutions, such as guidedwave radar, to ensure accurate inventory
measurements, prevent spills, optimize
transfer logistics, and verify custody
transfer measurements. Leveraging wireless, guided-wave radar technology has
added advantages that reduce installation
costs by as much $24,000 on a four-well
pad, according to a case study by WPX
Energy.
Diagnostic capabilities and interface
measurements can detect whether oil or
water has been transferred to the wrong
tank, helping to minimize lost production
and provide insight to correct separator
problems.
LACT Units
LACT units are another method for
transferring ownership of crude oil from
production facilities to pipelines or trucks,
and have many advantages compared
with most other custody transfer methods.
A LACT system offers unattended measurement while maintaining accuracy of
±0.25 percent or better.
In addition, it makes for better use of
labor and better scheduling of runs to
pipelines while eliminating measurement
errors related to tank bottom buildup or
encrustation, and reduces operating and
maintenance costs.
With LACT units, the flowmeter must
measure and quantify the fluid with a
high degree of accuracy. It must be insensitive to high viscosity values, and
must maintain the requested level of accuracy and reliability even when conditions
and operating parameters change. Meter
technologies, such as Coriolis, are designed
to overcome these types of challenges
TABLE 2
Estimated Oil Skim Losses
on Six-Well Pad
Pad Production
Estimated skim losses
Lost production volume
Lost production revenue
Annual impact

74 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

5,400 bbl/d
1%
54 bbl/d
$2,700/d
$985,500
American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2017

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