There are various reasons why industrial flow measurement is becoming more and more important every passing day. Consistent product quality, safety, process optimization and environmental protection are some of the reasons. Together with automated process control and state-of-the-art communication interfaces (field bus systems); flow metering has advanced into more and more new fields of application in recent years. Oil flow meters are extremely important in this day and age. Flow measurement is perhaps of greater importance to the oil industry than it is to any other industry and a good understanding of the metering process remains central to the efficient production of hydrocarbons.
The diverse applications within the oil industry call for a wide range of metering technologies with Coriolis mass, ultrasonic and turbine meters finding widespread application. Production plant presents a complex environment for flow measurement, platform space will always be at a premium and many meters are installed in situations that are far from ideal. Some of the typical oil and gas applications include- fluid loss and leak detection; process gas flow; cooling water flow monitoring; hydraulic fluid flow sensing in blow-out prevention; fiscal or custody transfer metering; measuring produced water discharge.
Things to Keep in Mind While Selecting Oil Flow Meters
In general, it is a bad idea to select an oil flow meter on the basis of line size. From practical experience we know that there are specific applications where the existing lines are frequently oversized. Meters of the same line size can have widely different flow ranges. This is frequently seen on small oil meters used for burner service. A magnetic or ultrasonic flow meter should be used if you have fibers, silt, and bits of matter coming from a cleaning process, biological matter or anything that can get into the bearings.
Flow Meter Source 