With the increased use of Natural Gas as a fuel, and higher natural gas prices buyers and sellers of natural gas are seriously looking at ways to improve their natural gas measurement and reduce the error in natural gas measurement.
A 6” Turbine or Ultrasonic meter operating at 1,000 Psi will move 100 MMSCF/Day. An error in measurement of only one tenth of one percent (0.1%) on 100 Million Standard Cubic Feet (MMSCF) of Natural Gas selling at $4.00 per Thousand Standard Cubic Feet (MSCF) will cause an over or under billing of $400.00. Therefore the error in a year is ($400 X 365) $146,000.00 This will more than pay for a proving or verifying system.
The Btu in one barrel of oil is equivalent to the Btu in approximately 5,600 cubic feet of natural gas. At $4.00 per thousand cubic feet, the natural gas equivalent of one barrel of oil is $22.40 which is much less than a barrel of oil so natural gas is becoming the fuel of choice.
In the petroleum liquid industry, no custody transfer liquid measurement system would be complete without a method to prove the meter, either as part of the equipment, or through connections provided to connect a portable prover.
Under billing causes loss of revenue and over billing can cause a future correction that can cost the company millions of dollars to correct over billing.