To register your interest please email enquiry@belvalves.com (data sheet coming soon)

There are strict requirements on Oil and Gas Operators to install accurate metering instrumentation to ensure, and to demonstrate, the safe, reliable and repeatable measurement of production throughput. These measurements are needed to satisfy Partners and Government for Financial and Fiscal purposes.

The Meter is at the heart of this application and, because of the need for accuracy, is checked and re-calibrated on a regular basis. This requires the Meter to be isolated and removed from the system. Typically, Metering Skids occur in banks of three so as not to interfere with the need for continuous production.

Isolating a Meter requires a valve system at either side. The principal requirement of these valves is to effect a tight shut off to prevent leakage and to avoid the consequences of producing on an unmetered system. This gives rise to two operational requirements: Safety and Space limitations.

Intervention into a Pressurised pipeline involves employing a Double Block and Bleed which means ensuring there are two seals and a vented chamber between the pressurised source and the atmosphere. Typically, this requires two mainline valves, a distance piece and a bleed valve to be sited upstream and downstream of the Meter. Three Metering Skids employing four mainline valves per skid and two double block and bleed assemblies is a large and a costly installation that includes an increased number of components with a corresponding increase for failure and the potential for leaks. If the seals on these valves are vulnerable and require regular maintenance, then these too, need to be isolated. So valve life is a further consideration.

A single valve installed either side of the meter would improve the Safety, Flow Measurement Reliability, Maintainability and Space considerations and have a beneficial impact on the CAPEX and OPEX evaluations.

BEL Valves designs, engineers and manufactures two options for a single valve to meet this application: an Expanding Gate Valve and an Eccentric Ball Valve (E-Ball). Both feature mechanically enacted metal-to-metal sealing, which is not reliant on the line pressure, and permit a double block and bleed function which enables the Operator to check for leakage. These features give them a higher level of reliability and functionality than either a conventional slab gate or a ball valve and a superior performance to the manual injection of viscous sealants into a soft sealed plug valve.

These additional levels of assurance make the choice of a single valve a serious element for evaluation when specifying the design of a Metering Skid.