All you Need to Know About Lease Automatic Custody Transfer Unit

All you Need to Know About Lease Automatic Custody Transfer Unit A Lease Automatic Custody Transfer (LACT) unit is required for custody transfer for crude oil and petroleum products from production facilities to trucks, railcars, pipelines, or storage tanks. Let’s understand all about the LACT unit

What is Lease Automatic Custody Transfer (LACT) Unit?

A Lease Automatic Custody Transfer Unit is an oil and gas piece of equipment that samples and measures oil. After sampling, it is moved from one storage to another.

The main goal of a LACT unit is to quantify the net volume and quality of liquid hydrocarbons.

LACT units are equipped with base sediment and water sensor, which analyzes the proportion of sediment and water in the oil and allows only low-level oil to pass through the pipeline.

Why is it an essential metering system?

The LACT unit is an important custody transfer metering system in the petroleum industry. It measures and samples the product that is required to transfer. You need many components to use the entire system, which can be customized according to clients’ requirements. We shall discuss the components later in the blog.

How does LACT work?

The LACT unit requires these components to work.

1. Pump The pump takes out oil from a storage tank to the LACT system.

2. Basic Sediment and Water (BS&W) A sensor and probe read the levels of BS&W during the flow of the stream. This flow is communicated to the control panel, which has the BS&W monitor as a record of representative samples of the percentage of water and the oil. The monitor also showcases the temperature of the oil that may affect the measurements by the unit.

3. Air Eliminator As the air may cause improper measurement of the oil, it has to travel through an air eliminator. It removes the air or gas from the pipe, if it exists. Lastly, liquid cannot escape in the process of elimination.

4. Inlet Static Mixer The inlet static mixer emulsifies the liquid. The purpose of doing this is to measure the volume of oil accurately.

5. 3-Way Diverter Valve This valve is controlled by the BS&W monitor to direct the oil to its destinations. The diverter valve will direct the oil to a separate bad oil tank if the sediment and water levels are too high. It allows natural separation before it is re-routed to the LACT unit.

Bypass lines can be used to direct this oil to the start of the separation process or to a separate heated vessel for removing excessive amounts of BS&W. The 3-way diverter valve will open and send the oil to a flow meter to be measured if the sediment and water levels are as required.

6. Coriolis Flow Meter The meter divides the process fluid into two coils that oscillate in opposite directions using motion mechanics.

7. Block & Bleed Valves This valve is located after the flow meter. A proving meter can be connected with this valve to connect for testing the accuracy of the system.

8. Back Pressure Valve Further, oil moves through this valve. It holds the pressure in the unit. The back pressure valve does not require a supply of gas to operate.

9. Check Valve This valve stops the backflow of metered fluid from flowing back to the LACT unit from the pipeline.

In final words, LACT is the essential unit for the petroleum industry for custody transfer. You can purchase the best LACT unit from a reliable provider - Oil and Gas Systems International (OGSI). They keep upgrading their system with technology. Also, OGSI has the best afterpurchase services. You can rely upon OGSI for not only the LACT unit but also other metering systems.

Source: https://ogsi.weebly.com/blog/all-you-need-to-know-about-leaseautomatic-custody-transfer-unit