Start Date
December 2018

Background
Currently there are several critical measures in Western Canada where light ends are measured for marketing valuation by producers and refiners and for compliance to specs.
Even though there have been developments these last years across CCQTA, ASTM , API etc, there is still no formal standardization across industry labs and facilities and we are exposed to misalignment of light end measures in crude oil which influence, regulations, marketing and upstream/downstream operations. It is proposed to bring forward some expertise across industry to align and push for implementation of improved light end crude measurements.

Past work by CCQTA on best practices can use some extensions to leverage updated insights by CCQTA and Sandia Labs and pipeline company current data with a goal of more exact sampling and method alignment. Note that we continue to have facilities using inappropriate/conflicting RVP and sampling methods in addition to some pipelines leveraging RVP bounds for emission and operation compliance that can be misled by ongoing increases in light ends. Note that many crudes continue to be challenging the upper end of light end composition pushing industry closer to requiring more investment in capital to manage them. In addition, Labs and operators are developing their own new practices for sampling and analytical techniques that expose industry to conflicting data.

The proposal is to consolidate the expertise already present in CCQTA membership and leverage the wide industry representation to deliver a single, updated, fit for purpose position on crude oil and diluent sampling and testing for use in such services as Equalization, Crude Monitor, and Regulatory custody transfer measures. The consolidated information is intended as a publicly available best practice similar to the recently published Vapor Pressure Best Practice

Link to Vapor Pressure Best Practice

Milestones as of February 2024

• Sub-Committee had its first meeting in December 2018.
  
• Initiated CCQTA/CQI/ITC sampling and testing project in July 2019 with agreement on the project objective, scope and project execution plan in September 2019.
  
• Study will focus on ASTM D8003, ASTM D7900 and the GPA2177M light ends test methods.
  
• Phase 1 summary data was presented to members at the March 2022 project meeting.
  
• Based on the results of phase 1, the decision was made not to proceed with phase 2. The group in attendance felt further sampling and analysis would not provide additional value and that the conclusions from phase 1 were sufficient.
  
• Phase 1 Report was released publicly on the CCQTA website in March 2023.
  

• A request has been made for CCQTA to conduct an interlaboratory study to establish the precision of GPA 2177M as it applies to crude oils. This was be discussed at the September 2023 Project Maintenance Meeting. An ILS proposal was presented at the December Project Maintenance meeting and accepted.
  
• Sample collection, homogenization and distribution for the ILS will begin late March 2024. Results will be presented as soon as they are available.
  
• GPA Midstream has been approached to include the CCQTA modifications into the next revision of GPA2177 as a Procedure B or appendix however they have a revision in progress and are not willing to disrupt that process.
  
• Potential to draft a new standalone ASTM standard, however there are a limited number of laboratories that perform this method on crude oils so it likely wouldn’t meet the ILS requirements for generating the method precision. Will discuss further at the March 2024 Project Maintenance meeting.