Uncertainty Evaluation of the Natural Gas Molar Mass and Its Flow Rate Impact

In Brazil, the National Oil Agency — ANP and the National Metrology Institute elaborated Regulation N^o 1, on June 19th 2000. This government decree approves the Regulation of the Measurement Technique of Oil and Natural Gas, which establishes the minimum conditions and requirements for the oil and natural gas measurement systems, in order to guarantee accurate and complete results. The natural gas measurement fiscal systems must be projected, calibrated and operated so that the measurement uncertainty does not exceed 1.5%. Based on the norms AGA and ISO, the mathematical model for the calculation of the mass flow rate, depends on quantities that have well known uncertainty such as: orifice plate diameter, pipeline internal diameter, compressibility factor, discharge coefficient, differential pressure, static pressure and flow temperature. However, for the molar mass standard uncertainty fixed values are utilized in Brazil (mainly by IPT and PUC-RJ), around 0.30%, independent of the natural gas composition. The objective of this work is to develop a methodology to calculate the molar mass uncertainty of the natural gas derived from its chemical composition, analyzed by gaseous chromatography and to comparing it with the value currently practiced, evaluating the impact proceeding from this difference in the mass flow rate of the natural gas. Based on this methodology, the molar mass uncertainty is around 0.05% and the fiscal system uncertainty decreases in more than 10% when it is compared with the mass molar fixed value uncertainty.