Electrical submersible pump flow meter
AssigneeSaudi Arabian Oil Company
InventorsJinjiang Xiao, Randall Alan Shepler
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for metering fluid in a subterranean well includes an electric submersible pump having a motor, a seal section and a pump assembly and a metering assembly. The metering assembly includes an upper pipe section with an outer diameter, the upper pipe section having an upper pressure sensing means, and a lower pipe section with an outer diameter smaller than the outer diameter of the upper pipe section, the lower pipe section having a lower pressure sensing means. A power cable is in electronic communication with the electric submersible pump and with the metering assembly.
Claims8
An apparatus for monitoring a flow of fluid in a subterranean well comprising:
- a first pipe section selectively disposed in the flow of fluid;
- a first pressure sensing system on the first pipe section that measures a first pressure loss of the flow of fluid along at least a portion of the first pipe section, the first pressure loss comprising first gravitational losses and first frictional losses;
- a second pipe section spaced axially away from the first pipe section and that is selectively disposed in the flow of fluid;
- a second pressure sensing system on the second pipe section that measures a second pressure loss of the flow of fluid along at least a portion of the second pipe section and that comprises second gravitational losses and second frictional losses, the second pipe section having an outer diameter that is less than an outer diameter of the first pipe section so that the second frictional losses are negligible with respect to the second gravitational losses;
- a controller in communication with the first and second pressure sensing systems and that calculates a pressure gradient along a portion of the second pipe section based on the equation PG=(g)(ρm)/((gc)(144));
- and a communication media in communication with the controller and with the first and second pressure sensing systems, so that signals representing the first and second pressure losses are communicated to the controller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.