Is It Really possible to use a Choke Valve as Multiphase Flow Meter? The CVAF from Laboratory to the Field

This paper describes a field application of a flow metering system based on choke valves. The Val d’Agri field was the chosen test site, objective of a Joint Venture between Enterprise Oil Italiana and ENI-Agip, which is the operator. Tests were carried out from October 1999 to September 2000. From the analysis of the results obtained, it clearly appears that such system lends itself to work as a multiphase flow meter. The order of magnitude of the errors associated to the oil flow rate measurements is encouraging, with an average relative error of –2.4% and a confidence interval of ± 12%. The results shown in this paper indicate that further developments of the presented metering system could be achieved through the integration of diagnostic techniques and control modules.