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The ABC’s of Measuring Success in Custody Transfer Measurement Projects

At several of our oil & gas projects, we implement changes on how companies perform custody transfer measurements.  The objective of these changes is to help companies establish better practices in measuring flow of hydrocarbons when it changes custody between different parties. These process improvements may include a lot of different activities, like analyzing existing processes and measurement practices, implementing new measurement procedures and manuals, developing measurement and analytical tools, installing dashboards and report, etc.

However, there are several important steps which are often forgotten, which are crucial to measuring success of all previously mentioned activities and changes:

  1. Escalation and Investigation. There needs to be a clearly defined process by which parties notify each other of identified discrepancies in measurement processes or results. These discrepancies will then need to be investigated to identify root causes, and corrective actions taken.
  2. In many cases, once all investigations are conducted, and root causes of measurement issues are identified, financial reconciliations between parties need to happen, to compensate for incorrect measurements. In many instances, these corrections will be the ultimate measure of success of implemented process changes and mark closing of investigation process.

Next time you design a process change at a pipeline or a refinery, ask yourself: “What will be the true measure of success of these changes?”

As Glenngarry Glenn Ross famously said: “ABC – Always Be Closing!”

This blog was written by Anas Dabbakh, Engagement Manager at Trindent Consulting. He works with energy companies to improve their productivity, increase maintenance turnaround time and establish Hydrocarbon Loss Control programs resulting in significant cost savings.