Patent decision

BL number

O/436/19

Concerning rights in

GB1515488.3

Hearing Officer

Mrs C L Davies

Decision date

26 July 2019

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Schlumberger Holidngs Limited

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(1)(b)

Keywords

Inventive step

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention is concerned with measuring the flow from a gas-liquid separator which may be used in the oil industry as oil wells produce oil, water and gas mixed together in various proportions. Typically, the water is not wanted but the oil or gas or both is e.g. a gas well might produce predominantly gas with some oil and water which is not of interest, so it is separated out and vice versa in an oil well. When separating out the gas, oil and water from one another it is desirable to understand how much of each is being produced. The invention is primarily concerned with gas coming out of a separator and determining how much gas is being obtained from the separator. Typically, this would be done by measuring a volumetric flow of gas from the separator. The invention relates to a method for analyzing the reliability of a measured volumetric flow rate of a fluid in a gas line of a gas-liquid separator, the method including measuring a gas volume fraction of the fluid in the gas line, comparing the measured gas volume fraction of the fluid to a threshold gas volume fraction level, and determining whether the measured volumetric flow rate is reliable based on the comparison.

Following the Windsurfing/Pozzoli approach, the Hearing Officer found that the invention claimed did involve an inventive step The application was allowed under section 18(3).

Full decision O/436/19 373Kb