Measurement uncertainty and trade: an example from the petroleum industry

The petroleum industry is and always has been one of the major players in global trade. The price of products depends largely on their characteristics, defined by specifications. Consequently the testing of these specifications and the acceptance of the results by all partners is a crucial pre-requisite for global trade. In the field of petroleum products this issue has been dealt with for decades by using internationally accepted standard test methods, which also define the required accuracy and measurement uncertainty, or the precision. Therefore the petroleum industry may well serve as an example of how measurement uncertainties can be treated and what impact they have on global trade.Presented at the Metro Trade Workshop on Traceability and Measurement Uncertainty in Testing, 30–31 January 2003, Berlin, Germany