Calibration Facility Opened
On Wednesday 24 March 2010, the worlds largest calibration facility for oil and gas meters, Euroloop, was officially opened. The opening of NMI’s unique calibration facility has been followed around the world. 150 VIPs from the international oil and gas industry and the press were given the opportunity to examine this special calibration facility from close by.
Thanks to the unique design of the loop and a number of technical tours de force, EuroLoop has taken a major step forward with respect to the accuracy of measuring large liquid and gas flows. Assuming the current Dutch import and export volumes (the ‘gas roundabout’), the economic significance that we are talking about resulting from an improvement in accuracy of 0.1% could be as much as EUR 25 million annually.
No other facility in the world can assess and calibrate industrial oil and gas meters with such a low level of measurement uncertainty. The meters concerned are up to 30″ in diameter and are built into the international trunk network for oil and gas, they form an important link in the oil and gas trade. Meters from throughout the world will be shipped to EuroLoop to be calibrated.
Thanks to the loop construction that allows an enormous volume of gas to be repeatedly reused, NMi is no longer dependent on the consumption of gas, which is the case with the current facility. In addition to the low level of measurement uncertainty, this allows NMi to offer its clients a faster service.
The next day on 25 March, NMI and VSL organised jointly the first Milestones in Metrology – oil and gas conference. International speakers gave their vision on the hot topics in the area of oil and gas measurement, LNG measurements, traceability and management of measurement data. During two introduction courses in flow measurement, which was specially created for the occasion, participants to the conference became acquainted with the most important principles of flow measurement.