This document gives means for ensuring that samples of natural gas and natural gas substitutes that are conveyed into transmission and distribution grids are representative of the mass to which they are allocated.

This document is applicable for sampling at sites and locations where interchangeability criteria, energy content and network entry conditions are measured and monitored and is particularly relevant at cross border and fiscal measurement stations. It serves as an important source for control applications in natural gas processing and the measurement of trace components.

This document is applicable to natural dry gas (single phase ‑ typically gas transiting through natural gas pipelines) sampling only. On occasion a natural gas flow can have entrained liquid hydrocarbons. Attempting to sample a wet natural gas flow introduces the possibility of extra unspecified uncertainties in the resulting flow composition analysis. Sampling a wet gas (two or three phases) flow is outside the scope of this document.

This document does not apply to the safety issues associated with gas sampling.