NEL Invests in UK’s First High Pressure Multiphase Flow Facility

NEL has invested £500,000 in the development of a new High Pressure Multiphase Flow Facility at its Glasgow laboratories, which will create the UK’s only facility capable of testing meters to such high pressures. The facility will operate at pressures up to 60 bar, equivalent to a sea depth of 600 metres, to accurately reflect the increasing pressures at which flow meters must operate subsea. It will also replicate a wide range of multiphase flow conditions, providing both equipment vendors and operators with an independent facility for development, verification and validation purposes. This will allow oil & gas operators to reduce both capital and operating costs through increased flow meter reliability. The new facility will be commissioned in the last quarter of this year and be fully operational by the end of the year. NEL’s Flow Measurement Facilities are already widely recognised as one of the best in the world and are the primary flow measurement standard for the UK, under the UK’s National Measurement System (NMS)*. “With worldwide oil reserves dwindling, the industry has increased subsea exploration to grow reserve volumes. NEL has long been recognised as a world-leading provider of multiphase evaluation services. It is therefore vital that our new High Pressure Multiphase Flow Facility reproduces realistic subsea pressures to assure both equipment vendors and operators that their flow meters will function reliably once installed,” said Dr Brian Millington, Director, NEL. . The High Pressure Multiphase Flow Facility forms part of NEL’s strategic development programme to make it the facility of choice for both vendors and operators for the development and verification of instruments for multiphase and wet gas flows. *The NMS is the UK's national infrastructure of measurement laboratories which delivers world-class measurement science and technology. It provides traceable and accurate standards of measurement for use in industry, academia and government.