OREANDA-NEWS. December 15, 2014. Flow-Cal is privileged to announce that the company’s Hydrocarbon Measurement Subject Matter Expert (SME), Scott Tanner, was invited to present at the 2014 Oil and Gas Pipeline Process System Technology International Seminar.

The seminar was held at PetroChina’s pipeline operations corporate headquarters in Langfang, China, which is widely known as China’s “Silicon Valley” and “Technology Centre”. Langfang hosts China’s Central Gas Control Centre and is home to virtually every pipeline engineering and design firm in China.

Currently, China measures natural gas in volume, while the US and most countries measure in energy. PetroChina aims to explore the initiative to convert all natural gas measurement to energy measurement, and intended for the seminar to introduce technology that can assist in a more efficient pipeline network.

“The FLOWCAL software can benefit China in helping to identify areas where they could tie in chromatograph and volumetric data,” said Tanner. “If there are areas in measurement where issues have occurred, whether in instrumentation or with Flow Computers, there is currently no way for them to correct this data. FLOWCAL would provide a method of identifying and correcting for all lost and unaccounted for data with a full audit trail.”

The 2014 Oil and Gas Pipeline Process System Technology International Seminar was open to the president, vice president and executive members of PetroChina. The leader of PetroChina welcomed the distinguished speakers that were individually chosen and invited to present at the seminar. The general office director of the Science and Technology Management Department in the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) also gave a speech to thank the participants and begin the seminar.

Among seven other speakers invited to attend from Horsley Consulting Ltd., CPP Engineering Corporation, Tripolidi Turbine Services Company, PetroChina, Long Hui Science and Technology Company, and Universal Vortex, Inc., Tanner presented information on determining lost and unaccounted for gas loss (UAF). He reviewed causes of UAF such as meter inaccuracies, pressure regulation and leakage. Additionally, Tanner presented methods to resolve issues to reduce UAF and provided techniques to improve the measurement process, system balancing and measurement integrity.

Other topics from presenters included Arctic pipelines, design of the West-East gas pipeline Line 2, optimisation of pipeline operations and compressor station efficiency, technology of the natural gas pipeline network, oil and gas storage and transportation pipeline management and control, Vortex technology, and noise-reduction device technology.

Tanner said he was especially interested in the presentation by PetroChina’s Li Fan that covered the simulation and optimisation technology of the natural gas pipeline network. She spoke about optimisation techniques for transfer and delivery of natural gas through the pipeline system that allowed for a 14.4% savings in transport cost and a fuel consumption rate reduction of 21% by using simulations.