Osamah Alomair, Adel Elsharkawy and Hassan Alkandari

Petroleum Engineering Department

College of Engineering & Petroleum, Kuwait University
Kuwait

to other correlations which were

Abstract

mostly developed for significantly

Viscosity is a key property for

lighter oils at average reservoir

evaluation, simulation and

temperatures. Most of them

development of petroleum

cannot reasonably predict the

reservoirs. The accurate prediction

heavy oil viscosity at elevated

of viscosity will be helpful for,

temperatures.

production forecasting, designing

Keywords- Unconventional Oil;

future of thermal recovery

Heavy Oil; Elevated

processes. Reservoir oil viscosity is

Temperature Viscosity; Kuwaiti

usually measured isothermally at

Crudes;

reservoir temperature. However, at

Introduction

temperature other than reservoir

Crude oil is one of the most

temperature these data are

significant constituents of the

estimated by empirical correlations.

reservoir fluids, and better

Here, based on results of viscosity

understanding of the nature and

measurements of 33 heavy crude

properties of the crude petroleum is

oil samples of API gravity ranging

important and essential to optimize

from 10 and 20 degree, at 68 F

its production and transportation.

collected from various areas of

Viscosity plays an important role in

Kuwaiti oil fields, and tested at 68

reservoir simulations as well as in

to 320 F. A new correlation has

determining the structure of liquids,

been developed. The validity and

but for heavy oils is a critical

accuracy of this correlation has

property in predicting oil recovery.

been confirmed by comparing the

In cold production, thermal

obtained results of this correlation

processes are designed to meet

with other published ones. The

the industry demand of lowering oil

results were satisfactory in contrast

viscosity. This results in an efficient

and optimized production fluid flow

Experimental work

rate up-to the surface initially and

More than 60 samples were tested

then ultimately in the surface

for

facility.

order to be more confirmed and

As the variation of viscosity with

confident

temperature is necessary in

viscometers

engineering activities including

working

philosophies)

piping and pipeline construction for

employed

to

enhance transportation, the thermal

experimental measurements for all

expansion are the key properties to

the crude oil samples.

increase productivity of heavy oils.

Dynamics viscosity, of all crude oil

Modern reservoir engineering

samples for the temperature range

practices require accurate

20 oC to 160 oC were determined by

information of thermodynamic and

using

transport fluid properties together

Electromagnetic Applied Systems

with reservoir rock properties to

PistonStyle

perform material balance

contains two magnetic coils inside

calculations.

a stainless steel body. A low mass

All viscosity measuring instruments

stainless steel piston inside the

measure the fluid property either by

measurement

or

magnetically forced back and forth

or

in the fluid. The time required for

vibrations into the fluid and then

the piston to move a fixed distance

dampening of theses oscillations to

(0.2) is then very accurately

measure viscosity.

In general,

related to the viscosity of the fluid

either the fluid remains stationary

in the chamber. As the piston is

and an object moves through it, or

pulled toward the bottom of the

the object is stationary and the fluid

measurement chamber, it forces

moves past it. The drag caused by

the fluid at the bottom of the

relative motion of the fluid and a

chamber to flow around the piston

surface

toward the sensor opening where it

certain

generate

viscosity.

physical
the

is

principle

oscillations

measure

of

the

viscosity

measurements.
three
(based

different
on

accomplish

the

In

three
were
the

Cambridge

Viscometer.

chamber

It

is

interchanges with the normal flow

of the fluid. On the upward piston

stroke, fresh process fluid is pulled

and dynamic viscosity range is 1.78

around the piston to the bottom of

cp to 10000 cp.

the measurement chamber. The

flow deflector continuously diverts

Development of New DeadHeavy Oil Viscosity Correlation

fluid from the process stream into

Initially, it was attempted to modify

the

the

and improve the published and

thereby

most promising (Begg, Hossain,

outer

portion

measurement
refreshing

of

chamber,

the

fluid.

Khafji and Standing) correlations

Since measurement of the motion

but it all proved abortive and not a

is made in two directions, variation

single was able to qualify the

in travel time due to vibration,

current experimental data over the

orientation, and flow are almost

entire

completely eliminated.

Henceforth, in the development of

Dead-heavy oil databank

new

An exclusively reliable set of 33

correlation, multiple and nonlinear

samples of Kuwaiti dead-heavy

regression

crude

based on simple parameters. The

oil

measured

were

collected

in

Petroleum Fluid Research Centre

(PFRC),

Kuwait

University.

Actually, each sample was tested

for about 12 temperature steps
between 20 to 160 oC and total 396
data points were collected.

After

conducting a preliminary filtering

and screening a 360 data points
set is meticulously selected. This
study defines the heavy oil as
10o<API<20o
pressure

and

at
60

atmospheric
o

F.

During

experimental work the viscosity

range of 1.78 cp to 11360 cp is
anticipated. In this study, API range
is 10 to 20 degree @ 60

F,

temperature range is 20 to 160 oC

temperature
heavy

range.

oil

methods

viscosity
were used

proposed model is explained as;

Ln a b * Ln T c * Ln API
where;
= Dead-Heavy oil viscosity, cp
T = Temperature, oF
API

= Oil Gravity

a= 30.5149, b=-2.7935, c=-.15088

Results and discussions
The proposed model defined above
is formulated using the selected
samples of dead-heavy oil viscosity
measurements

with

an

electromagnetic viscometer. Three

different sample API ranges (low,
medium, and high) were tested to

validate the proposed model. The

conduct a qualitative (graphical

viscosity values predicted by the

comparison)

proposed model as equation (1)

different cases (API basis) have

are in good agreement with the

been considered. The cross plots

experimental

values.

and comparison plots discussed in

Figure-1 proves the power and

Figures 2, 3 & 4 shows the good

authenticity of the proposed dead-

strength of proposed correlation.

measured

study. Here,

three

heavy model for all the three

Case-A (Low API = 11.772)

categories samples.

f(x) = 1x
R = 1
Measured (Low API)

Begg

Standing

Khafji

Proposed

45 Degree

Pre dicte d Vis cos ity (cp)

Proposed (Low API)

Hossain

Measured (Medium API)

Viscosity (cp)

Linear (45 Degree)

M e as ure d Vis cos ity (cP)

Proposed (Medium API)

Figure-2

(a)

Measured (High API)

Proposed (High API)

Temperature (F)

Begg

Standing

Khafji

Proposed

EXP

Vis cos ity (cp)

Figure-1
Three families of curves are plotted

Hossain

and it is shown that high and

medium dead-heavy oils are in
good

agreement

with

Te m pe rature (F)

their

respective experimental values. To

Figure-2

(b)

be more certain and confident for

the proposed correlation, some
samples

were

considered

to

Case-B (Medium API = 15.069)

f(x) = 1x
R = 1
Begg

Standing

Khafji
Begg

Predicte d Vis cos ity (cp)

Hossain

Standing

Khafji

Proposed

EXP

Vis cos ity (cp)

Proposed

45 Degree

Hossain
Linear (45 Degree)

M e as ure d Vis cos ity (cP)

Figure-3

(a)

Te m pe rature (F)

Figure-4

(a)

Conclusions
A qualitative study is conducted at
Begg

Standing

Khafji

elevated

temperatures.

extended experimental work also

Vis cos ity (cp)

contributed
Hossain

The

Proposed

EXP

to

the

data

bank.

Accurate viscosity measurements

are needed, as heavy-dead oil
viscosity at reservoir temperature is

Te m pe rature (F)

used
Figure-3

(b)

criterion

for

production, steam injection and

refine
Khafji

prediction

of

reservoir

production forecast following an

exploitation process.

Predicte d Vis cos ity (cp)

Hossain

main

from candidate processes: cold

f(x) = 1x
R = 1
Standing

selection of exploitation methods

Case-C (High API = 18.812)

Begg

as

Proposed

45 Degree

An improved prediction method has

been developed for heavy-dead
Kuwaiti oils. This requires no graph

Linear (45 Degree)

or chart, a reasonable size of data

M e as ure d Vis cos ity (cp)

Figure-4

(a)

was used in this study, therefore,

the results should be acceptable
over a wider range of API gravity as
well as temperature.

Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Kuwait
University, Research Grant No. [EP
02/08]. The authors would like also
to acknowledge the support of the
General Facility Research Grant
[GE 01/07].
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