A three-year cooperation agreement on testing gas meters was signed by Statoil, Ruhrgas and Gaz de France in Emden on 31 March.
Large volumes of Norwegian gas are piped daily through the Europipe I and II trunklines to Statoil's receiving facilities at Dornum and Emden in northern Germany.
These quantities are metered before being sent on to customers in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.
With such large volumes, even marginal improvements in metering accuracy can mean substantial financial gains for suppliers, notes John Eldøy, president of Statoil Deutschland.
An improvement of 0.1 per cent on 100 million cubic metres of gas per day adds up to 100,000 cubic metres daily.
Under the cooperation agreement, the existing orifice metering system will be tested in conjunction with two other methods for measuring large gas volumes – turbine and ultrasonic meters.
They will be subject to normal operating conditions in an 18-month field trial at the metering station in Emden, where a Test Loop Emden has been built.
Statoil hopes ultrasonic metering could yield good results, says Mr Eldøy.
"We believe that this is the system of the future."