3541 EI Research Report: Measurement of water at the crude oil/water interface using portable electronic gauging devices

Overview:

Portable electronic gauging devices (PEGDs) are used to manually measure oil, water and temperature in crude oils, petroleum products and chemicals in vessel tanks and shore storage tanks.

Previous studies have shown that crude oils can adhere to a water finding rule leading to an incorrect measurement of water. Density, viscosity and temperature were the properties of the oils that were found to cause this effect.

This study investigated the limiting parameters on the measurement of water at the oil/water interface using two of the most common PEGDs on a range of crude oils.