J.R. Stolz, Mobil Oil Corp
Accurate and timely information is necessary if oilproducing facilities are to be operated properly. The operation of oil-producing properties at the optimum degree of efficiency is rapidly becoming an absolute necessity in the present social, economic, and political climate. The rates and volumes of the oil production, produced water, well test, and injection water are all important parts of the required information. It is not reasonable to expect a high degree of efficiency without this information being available. This paper discusses one phase of the continuing effort to provide this information to the operating personnel in the best possible manner. This effort is in fluid measurement. Several production units were formed in the Slaughter Field in Hockley and Cochran Counties in West Texas in the mid 1960"s; they were placed under waterflood soon after the units were formed. Meters were installed as a part of the initial water injection system. The injection lines were laid in a trunk and lateral system and, therefore, the individual injection-well meters are scattered throughout the field with a central remote readout capability. In the nearly 15 years since this metering system was installed, there have been technical advances in the art of metering, and economic conditions have also changed. A significant improvement in metering technology has been the development of sensing devices which make possible more positive detection of primary signals of low intensity. The economic changes have, of course, been the increased cost of equipment and labor. The cost that we are primarily concerned with is the one which we have the most control over: the cost of repair or maintenance. These two changing factors, coupled with the increasing importance of operational data, brought about the study of the application of the vortex meter as a possible improvement in metering systems.