Expert Densitometer Calibration Laboratory Services

Oil worldwide is traded in barrels. In the UK, oil production is reported in tonnes and allocated by mass. Therefore, the accurate measurement of density at the correct conditions of temperature and pressure is critical since oil flow in pipelines is largely measured by volume, and conversions involving density are necessary for accurate financial reporting, fair trade and taxation. Errors in density measurement may be the single biggest measurement issue to affect the oil industry. All commercial densitometers, for use on gases or liquids, operate on an oscillatory principle and require periodic calibration.

TÜV SÜD National Engineering Laboratory manages the only Densitometer Calibration Facility in the UK that allows densitometers to be calibrated at their anticipated operating conditions. Since launching its calibration service in 2012, TÜV SÜD National Engineering Laboratory has calibrated over 1,000 units in strict accordance with the UK North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) Guidelines.

A key requirement of these Guidelines is that calibration should be carried out at the anticipated operating conditions. This requirement arose as a result of a Joint Industry Project led by TÜV SÜD National Engineering Laboratory which demonstrated that the previous recalibration procedure of just adjusting the K0 and K2 coefficients based on data obtained at 20ºC and 1 bar was totally inadequate.

The Facility

The facility is equipped to calibrate densitometers at temperatures from 5 to 100ºC and simultaneously at pressures from 3 to 141 bar (a). Depending on the temperatures and pressures, the reference fluids’ densities range from 625 to 1005 kg.m^-3 , with an uncertainty of 0.02% (k=2).

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Why Choose TÜV SÜD National Engineering Laboratory?

TÜV SÜD National Engineering Laboratory is a world class provider of technical consulting, research, measurement, and testing services to clients across many industries including oil & gas, water, power & energy, and government.

TÜV SÜD National Engineering Laboratory is the UK’s National Measurement Institute responsible for the management of the UK National Standard for Flow Measurement.