In subsea business, the use of a wet gas flowmeter is becoming a standard for deep and ultradeep field development. The business growth is outstanding over the last few years and it is expected to continue at the same path. Furthermore, the tieback of these fields to hosting platform or onshore facility has increased drastically. The critical measurement is not only on high accuracy flow rates but also on water detection with >99% of the production being gas. The liquid is initially predominantly condensate phase continuous before becoming more watery with the well ageing. Water is the main concern either in presence of H2S or because hydrate could be formed and will plug the production line . To counterbalance these catastrophic scenarios the chemical use is necessary, but the cost leads to loss of benefit, therefore an optimization is necessary. The need for a reliable water detection became a compulsory practice with constraint to be working initially in oil and water continuous phase.

The innovative solution describes in this paper look at how an accurate measurement could be offered at any GVF and WLR based on the use of two different types of measurement having a different response to the water-hydrocarbon contrast and water conductivity sensitivity. This approach led to a development of an innovative add-on on the wet gas meter which provides a high accurate local water fraction measurement that can be comparing with a global measurement.

This paper is focusing on the explanation of this innovative analysis after 10 years of work in this direction, and the value brought to oil/gas operator in detection of water and then optimizes the use of expensive chemical. It is also possible to identify clearly if the water is coming from the formation or not in any WLR mix. It addresses also the use of MPFM beyond the classical metering flow rate performance and focuses on the benefits brought for a subsea flow assurance and reservoir management.