Watercut Measurement Method by Using High Speed Impedance Sensor

Abstract

Oil and water mixtures are present in many applications, specifically in upstream oil production. To investigate oil-water that utilizes an electrical impedance measurement method. In this method, watercut is measured by using a newly developed algorithm that uses multiple frequencies to enhance the accuracy of the watercut measurements and to identify the mixture dispersion type. Electrical characteristics of the mixture were investigated by studying the effect of three factors, the emulsion properties, hysteresis effect, and temperature effect. The dependency of the watercut meter response to the influencing factors was reduced by implementing this developed novel method. Using this method, the uncertainty in watercut measurement from 0 to 1 watercuts was obtained to be about ±3% regardless of phase distribution. The effect of the shear forces on emulsion properties was investigated for all watercuts separately. The hysteresis effect was investigated by testing from 1 to 0.3 watercuts and 0 to 0.7 watercuts. The temperature effect was investigated by testing from 29.44 °C (85 °F) to 23.88 °C (75 °F) for 1 watercut. The shear forces have significant effect on emulsion properties in ambivalent range. The hysteresis and temperature do not have significant effect on the watercut measurement method.