Faculty of Petroleum & Mining Engineering Suez University

Reservoir Fluid Laboratory Analysis

Differential Liberation Test
By: Ahmed M. Saad

2013

 Differential Liberation = Differential Vaporization

A PVT process has been designed in an attempt to provide a means of in part simulating the changing systems as separation occurs within the reservoir below the bubble point. The differential vaporization differs from the flash in that the liberated gas is removed from the cell stepwise. It can be performed only for crude oil samples. At each step below the bubble point the quantity of gas, oil volume, density, gas expansion and gas compressibility are determined.

The objectives of the differential test therefore are to generate PVT data for conditions below the bubble point.

By Eng/Ahmed M. Saad

Faculty of Pet.& Min Eng. Email : pet.eng92@gmail.com

Suez University

 The following figure indicates the differential process :

Steps of the test :

The bubble point Pb is the starting pressure for the differential test.

The next step is to reduce the pressure in the PV cell by expansion of the PV cell volume .The reduction of pressure causes the system to go two phase.

All the gas phase is removed at constant pressure .

By Eng/Ahmed M. Saad

Faculty of Pet.& Min Eng. Email : pet.eng92@gmail.com

Suez University

 By reducing the cell volume as gas is withdrawn before establishing equilibrium with the liquid phase and The volume of the remaining oil is then determined. The cell pressure is then again dropped by expansion of the PV cell and the above process repeated until the cell pressure has been dropped to atmospheric pressure. The pressure steps for the tests cover a range of around 810 steps. All the above steps have taken place at reservoir temperature. The final stage is to reduce the cell to 60F keeping the pressure at atmospheric pressure .The final oil volume is measured. This remaining all is termed residual oil to distinguish it from stock tank oil which although at the same pressure and temperature conditions has got there by a different process. The cumulative weight of the amounts of gas withdrawn are used in the calculation of the densities of the oil phase in the differential vaporization process .These densities can also be determined directly if a pressure pycnometer is available.

Differential liberation is considered to be representative of the gas-liquid separation process in the reservoir below the bubble point pressure.
By Eng/Ahmed M. Saad Faculty of Pet.& Min Eng. Email : pet.eng92@gmail.com Suez University

 Flash liberation is considered to take place between the reservoir and through the separator. Differential liberation tests are carried out therefore to obtain oil formation volume factors and GORs that can be used to predict the behavior of a reservoir when the pressure has dropped below the bubble point pressure.

Determination of Gas Composition , Zfactor, Specific Gravity :

Composition of gas is determined from removed gas . Z-factor is determined from the following equation :

Where: V = volume of liberated gas in the PVT cell at P and T. Vsc = Volume of removed gas at standard condition.

By Eng/Ahmed M. Saad

Faculty of Pet.& Min Eng. Email : pet.eng92@gmail.com

Suez University

 Specific gravity of gas is determined from removed gas. The following figure is a plot for Gas Gravity against pressure :

Determination of Oil density :

At each step oil volume is measured and from cumulative weight of gas oil density is determined.

From Differential Liberation test

From Flash Vaporization test

By Eng/Ahmed M. Saad

Faculty of Pet.& Min Eng. Email : pet.eng92@gmail.com

Suez University

Determination of Differential Solution Gas Oil Ratio (scf/STB) :

The removed gas at each step is flashed to standard conditions and its volume is measured and from the cumulative volume of liberated gas measured at standard conditions is used to calculate gas oil ratio.

The following is an example from a real PVT report for samples from Western Desert :

By Eng/Ahmed M. Saad

Faculty of Pet.& Min Eng. Email : pet.eng92@gmail.com

Suez University

 The following figure is a plot for Sol. Gas Oil Ratio :

Determination of Gas Formation Volume Factor (gd) :

It needs no correction to separator conditions.

By Eng/Ahmed M. Saad Faculty of Pet.& Min Eng. Email : pet.eng92@gmail.com Suez University

 The following is a plot for Gas Formation Volume Factor against pressure :

Determination of Relative Oil Volume (Diff. Oil FVF) od :

The differential oil formation volume factors od at all the pressure levels are calculated by dividing the recorded oil volumes V by the volume of residual oil Vsc .

The following Figure is a plot for Oil FVF :

By Eng/Ahmed M. Saad

Faculty of Pet.& Min Eng. Email : pet.eng92@gmail.com

Suez University

Determination of Total Formation Volume Factor t :

where Rsb = gas solubility at the bubble-point pressure, scf/STB Rs= gas solubility at any pressure, scf/STB O= oil formation volume factor at any pressure, bbl/STB g= gas formation volume factor, bbl/scf

By Eng/Ahmed M. Saad

Faculty of Pet.& Min Eng. Email : pet.eng92@gmail.com

Suez University

 The following figure illustrates the increase of g with the reduction of pressure :

By Eng/Ahmed M. Saad

Faculty of Pet.& Min Eng. Email : pet.eng92@gmail.com

Suez University