Oil and Gas Measurement Ltd’s products, such as crude oil sampling and metering applications, are accurate and technically advanced to quantify the amount of fluids passing through pipes.
It is particularly important to quantify the fraction of water (water-cut) as this is indispensable for businesses and regulatory bodies. However, their current measurement tools are unable to provide accurate measurement of water-cut with varying salinity, which is essential for OGM to gain competitive advantage.
The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between the University of Bath and OGM, awarded 'Outstanding' by Innovate UK, has led to the development of a digital electromagnetic water cut that provides good estimate to salinity.
Professor Manuch Soleimani, Academic lead from the Department for Electronic and Electrical Engineering, and KTP Associate Dr Raymond Webilor, applied expertise from the Engineering Tomography Lab (ETL) at the University to integrate Electromagnetic Induction Tomography (EMT) within OGM’s engineered products.
Dr Wes Maru, R&D Manager for OGM, says:
For OGM and the oil and gas industry at large, the development of an accurate water cut meter that is not affected by salinity is a necessity and not an option. This work is a tremendous step in that direction, where further refinement is taking place for a field-test as there are currently no such products in the market. The skills and knowledge from Professor Soleimani and his team, world leading in his field, are far beyond our current capabilities and have enabled us to now meet emerging market needs.
Professor Soleimani says:
Our key challenge was creating a robust product which can measure with total accuracy and in all conditions. EMT is ideal as it is highly sensitive to conductive fluids such as water, saline fluids, and metallic flows. It is also non-intrusive and therefore not liable to fouling or corrosion. We were able to work with OGM to transfer our EMT knowledge and help provide a transformative change in their market reach. OGM has one of the best flow loop facilities in Europe so it was great that we were able to test the device on this flow loop.
Jody Chatterjee, Knowledge Transfer Adviser for the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) says:
This KTP project has been strategically transformational for OGM. It was challenging both technically and commercially. The team worked well together to ensure knowledge transfer from the University to the company via the Associate was embedded effectively to enable future innovations and continued collaborations between the partners.
The partnership was managed by the KTP team in Research and Innovation Services (RIS) at the University of Bath.
Director of RIS, Caroline Quest, says:
We have a strong track record of delivering ‘Outstanding’ KTPs for partner companies at the University of Bath. This KTP is particularly innovative as it ushers in a new era of digital measurement which not only benefits OGM but the wider oil and gas industry.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) are funded by Innovate UK to help businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills within the UK knowledge base.
Further information
More from the University on KTPs
Email the KTP team in RIS: ktp@bath.ac.uk
Follow KTPs on twitter: @ktpbath
