Shell Canada Selects KROHNE’s ALTOSONIC V
for Custody Transfer

KROHNE ALTOSONIC V, 5-beam ultrasonic flowmeters, have been chosen as key components of the custody transfer metering system for the Athabasca Oil Sands Project. The Project, owned by Shell Canada, Chevron Canada, and WesternOil Sands, will mine, extract and upgrade oil sand from Northern Alberta into high quality synthetic crude oils.

With three joint venture owners, a highly accurate measurement of oil components was needed in order to allocate ownership. The meters will be installed at the Project's Scotford Upgrader next to Shell's existing Scotford Refinery in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. The downstream facilities of this large project, which involve five contracting engineering firms, began in December 1999, and will produce its first oil in late 2002. The first nine ALTOSONIC V flowmeters, of the eleven ordered, will be delivered later this year.

Custody Transfer
Highly accurate flowmeters are essential for measuring crude oil and oil products in CTA trading. Because conventional turbine flowmeters, typically, have a measurement uncertainty of ±0.2% of measured values, they have dominated the CTA market despite their high installation and operating costs.

Advantages of the Altosonic V
KROHNE's Altosonic V, five-beam multichannel ultrasonic flowmeter, is proving to be a superior alternative to turbine meters. With a measurement uncertainty value of 0.15%, the accuracy of the Altosonic V is now comparable with the best turbine flowmeters and it offers other significant advantages:

	Measurements are independent of viscosity, which is ideal for pipelines with multiple product capacity. Turbine meters must be reproved before each new product.
	It is insensitive to flow profile disturbances, thanks to an integral 'confusor' and unique software that measure both swirl and the Reynolds number and compensates for these variables
	More functionality is available - including the measurement of temperature, viscosity and sound velocity. This allows, for example, oil types to be identified.
	It reduces operating costs since there are no moving parts to wear, and re-calibration is not needed. Pressure losses are minimal due to the free flow through the cross section. Capital costs are also lower, thanks to the greater dynamic range of the Altosonic V. This reduces the number of flowmeters needed for a given installation; typically two ultrasonic flowmeters will replace four turbine meters.
	Bi-directional flow measurement is possible.

Key Words: Flow, ultrasonic, oil, turbine, custody transfer
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