Reservoir Engineering 1

CGE 567

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

CGE 567
Reservoir Engineering 1

Oil Properties

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Oil Properties
An accurate description of physical properties of crude oils is
of a considerable importance in the fields of both applied and
theoretical science and especially in the solution of petroleum
reservoir engineering problems.
Data on most of these fluid properties are usually determined
by laboratory experiments performed on samples of actual
reservoir fluids.
In the absence of experimentally measured properties of
crude oils, it is necessary for the petroleum engineer to
determine the properties from empirically derived
correlations.

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Crude Oil Gravity

The crude oil density is defined as the mass of a unit volume
of the crude at a cubic foot. The specific gravity of a crude oil
is defined as the ratio of density of the oil to that of water.
Both densities are measured at 60F and atmospheric
pressure;

The density of water is approximately 62.4 lb/ft

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

API Gravity
The API gravity is the preferred gravity scale
The gravity scale is precisely related to the specific gravity by
the following expression:

The API gravities of crude oils usually range from 46 API for
the lighter crude oils to 10 API for the heavier asphaltic crude
oils

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

API Gravity

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

API Gravity

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

API Gravity

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

API Gravity
In general, crude oil is sold through a variety of contract
arrangements and in spot transactions. Oil is also traded on
futures markets but not generally to supply physical volumes of
oil, more as a mechanism to distribute risk. These mechanisms
play an important role in providing pricing information to
markets.
In fact, the pricing of crude oils has become increasingly
transparent from the 1990s onwards through the use of
benchmark crudes such as:

West Texas Intermediate (WTI USA)

Brent (Europe, Africa and Asia)
Dubai and Oman (Middle East)
Dubai, Tapis and Dated Brent (in Asia-Pacific)

AIP (Australian Institute of Petroleum)

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

API Gravity
In Asia there is no futures exchange where crude oil is traded and
which would provide pricing information to the same extent as
WTI and Brent. In Asia the pricing mechanism for say Tapis, a
benchmark for light sweet crudes in the region, is based on an
independent panel approach where producers, refiners and
traders are asked for information on Tapis crude trades.
There are details assessment done by Platts, McgGraw Hill
Financial as for the benchmarking. Generally this is based on a
formula approach where a benchmark crude is used as the base
and then a quality differential (premium/discount) as well as a
demand/supply (premium/discount) is added depending on the
crude being purchased.
AIP (Australian Institute of Petroleum)
Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

API Gravity
Prices of crude oil markers and petroleum product markers are
affected by a myriad of factors including:

overall supply/demand for crude

supply/demand for petroleum products
freight rates
competition in the crude markets
competition in the regional and domestic markets for petroleum
products.

AIP (Australian Institute of Petroleum)

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

API Gravity
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is the benchmark oil prices most
often used in North America
Also known as Texas light sweet.
WTI is light crude oil with API gravity of around 39.6 , specific
gravity 0.827 (lighter than Brent crude) and sulfur content of
0.25%

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

API Gravity
Brent Crude is a major trading classification of sweet light crude
oil that serves as a major benchmark price for puchase of oil
worlwide.
Brent Blend crude oil has an API gravity of 37.9 degrees and 0.45
percent sulfur.
Brent is the leading global price benchmark for Atlantic basin
crude oils

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

API Gravity
The Tapis field, off the coast of Terengganu in Peninsular Malaysia,
was discovered in 1969 and started production in 1978.
Tapis, among Asias premium grades along with Australias Cossack
and Griffin, is valued because it enables refiners to produce a
greater amount of gasoline without increased investments. Most
types of crude oil from the Middle East contain a greater
proportion of sulfur and other pollutants.
Tapis has an API gravity of 46 degrees and contain 0.0343 % sulfur
by weight
Malaysias Tapis crude oil, once the worlds most expensive
grade, is losing its status as a benchmark for Asian refiners buying
grades from Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam because of declining
output.
Christian Schmollinger, Blooberg; December 15, 2008
Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

API Gravity

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Specific Gravity of the

Solution Gas
The specific gravity of the solution gas g is describe by the
weighted average of the specific gravities of the separated gas
from each separator.
This weigthed-average approach is based on the separator
gas-oil ratio;

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Specific Gravity of the

Solution Gas

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Specific Gravity of the

Solution Gas

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Bubble point pressure

The bubble-point pressure pb of a hydrocarbon system is
defined as the highest pressure at which a bubble of gas is first
liberated from the oil.
Pressure at which the first gas bubble is liberated from the
reservoir oil
Upon isothermal pressure reduction

This is important property can be measured experimentally for

a crude oil system by conducting a constant-composition
expansion test.

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Gas Solubility
The gas solubility Rs is defined as the number of standard
cubic feet of gas that will dissolve in one stock tank barrel of
crude oil at certain pressure and temperature
Know as solution gas-oil ratio (the volume of gas in SCF
dissolved in one STB of oil at a specific reservoir pressure)

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Gas Solubility
The solubility of a natural gas in a crude oil is a strong function
of the pressure, temperature, API gravity and gas gravity.
For a particular gas and crude oil to exist at a constant
temperature, the solubility increases with pressure until the
saturation pressure is reached.
At the saturation pressure (bubble-point pressure) all the
available gases are dissolved in the oil and the gas solubility
reaches its maximum value.
Rather than measuring the amount of gas that will dissolve in
a given stock-tank crude oil as the pressure is increased, it is
customary to determine the amount of gas that will come out
of a sample of reservoir crude oil as pressure decreases.

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Gas Solubility
As the pressure is reduced from the initial reservoir pressure
pi, to the bubble-point pressure pb, no gas evolves from the oil
and consequently the gas solubility remains constant at its
maximum value of Rsb.
Below the bubble-point pressure, the solution gas is liberated
and the value of Rs decreases with pressure.

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Oil Formation Volume Factor,

Bo
The reservoir volume in barrels (RB) that is occupied by one
stock tank barrel (STB) of oil and its dissolved gas
The oil formation volume factor can be expressed
mathematically as;

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Oil Formation Volume Factor,

Bo
As the pressure is reduced below the initial reservoir pressure
pi, the oil volume increases due to the oil expansion (oil
compressibility).
This behavior results in an increase in the oil formation
volume factor and will continue until the bubble-point
pressure is reach.
At pb, the oil reaches its maximum expansion and
consequently attains a maximum value of Bob for the oil
formation volume factor.
As the pressure is reduced below pb, volume of the oil and Bo
are decreased as the solution gas liberated.
When the pressure is reduced to atmospheric pressure and
temperature to 60F, the value of Bo is equal to 1
Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Oil Formation Volume Factor,

Bo

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

 Oil and gas production rates, Qo (STB/D) and Qg (SCF/D), are

measured at the surface at a time when the reservoir pressure
is P. This pressure is below the bubble point pressure Pb. What
are the corresponding underground withdrawal rates (RB/D)?

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Since every STB of oil produced to

the surface Rs SCF of solution gas,
the volume of free gas produced
from the reservoirs (R - Rs) (SCF/STB)
This means that for every STB
of oil which is produced at this
pressure, we produce R SCF of
gas at the surface

Each STB of oil produced to the

surface requires the withdrawal
of Bo RB of oil and is accompanied
by (R - Rs)Bg RB of free gas

If we produce Qo STB of oil, the

total underground withdrawal
is Qo(Bo + (R - Rs)Bg)

The producing gas-oil ratio is;

R = Qg/Qo (SCF/STB)

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Oil Compressibility, Co
The fractional reduction in oil volume that results from a
pressure increase of one psi.
The volume changes of oil above the bubble point are very
significant in the context of recovery of undersaturated oil.
The oil formation volume factor variations above the bubble
point reflect these changes.
The equation for oil compressibility :

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Oil Compressibility, Co
In term of formation volume factors this equation yields :

Assuming that the compressibility does not change with

pressure, the above equation can b integrated to yield :

Where P1 & P2 and V1 & V2 represent the pressure and the

volume at condition 1 & 2.

Department Oil & Gas, Faculty of Chemical Engineering