Guidelines for Selecting Appropriate PVT Correlations for Black Oils

Abstract

AbstractAccurate determination of the crude oil PVT properties is essential for solving many reservoir engineering, production engineering, and surface production and operational problems. A large number of PVT correlations for oil exist in the petroleum literature and numerous studies are also present for with data favoring one correlation over the other. In the absence of PVT data from laboratory experiments, it is often difficult to choose which correlation to use to calculate different PVT properties. We approached this problem in two ways. First, we developed an expert system that checks the input parameters (e.g. reservoir parameters) against the valid ranges of input data for different correlations, and then recommends which correlations to use for specific input parameters. Second, we tested all available PVT correlations for black oil on a database of selected 35 Egyptian crudes to develop guidelines on which correlations to use for each PVT property for the specific range of input data. These specific crudes were selected to allow testing of those guidelines on a wide range of reservoir input data for black oils. Our database included oils with oAPI ranging from 17 to 51, gas-oil-ratios of 8 to 7,800 scf/STB, formation volume factor at bubble point of 1.04 to 4.47 bbl/STB, bubble point pressures of 60 to 4,739 psia, and reservoir temperatures of 40 to 270 °F.The present work included 13 bubble points, 6 solution-gas-oil ratio, 14 formation volume factors, 13 oil compressibilities, 14 dead oil viscosities, 9 saturated oil viscosities, 10 under saturated oil viscosities, 12 under-saturated densities, 2 total formation volume factors and 2 saturated density correlations.Based on this study, guidelines for selecting an appropriate correlation for PVT oil properties are introduced. These guidelines are recommended in programming of PVT correlations regardless of their geographic origin.