The flow meter presented in this paper is based on the isokinetic sampling of the gas-liquid mixture, followed by separation and metering of the individual phases. With respect to other MPFMs, the main feature of the meter is the advantage of self-calibration, [1], [2]. Moreover, sampling allows the water flow rate to be directly measured after a liquid-liquid separator.
The development phase of the meter and the preliminary tests carried out at Trecate field, in Italy, with a 2" prototype are described in [1]. In these experiments the self calibration features of the VEGA were fully tested and appear to be a characteristic unique to this flowmeter. On the basis of these results, a full scale MPFM was installed in Allegheny TLP, GOM, in August 2002, for production allocation and monitoring. In this application VEGA measurements have been compared with data obtained with a conventional well testing system, certified for production allocation [2].
