5/9/2019 PVT DATA USEFUL FOR DESIGN OF OIL PRODUCTION FACILITIES - Oil & Gas Journal

PVT DATA USEFUL FOR DESIGN OF OIL

PRODUCTION FACILITIES
05/22/1995

Shashi Dharmadhikari
Petrotechna
Paris

A simple procedure for designing separators and related equipment has been developed to
accurately establish the reservoir uid composition from pressure-volume-temperature (PVT)
analyses.

The performance of an actual oil production facility demonstrates that operational experience
agrees well with the prediction based on the procedure.

Engineers not very familiar with PVT analysis for designing oil eld separation equipment will
nd this procedure very useful.

Common Terms in PVT Analysis (50010 bytes)

PROCESS DESIGN

During development of an oil eld, a number of crude oil samples are obtained downhole and
then sent to a laboratory for specialized PVT analysis. This analysis determines reservoir uid
composition and derives such characteristics as dissolved gas content and residual oil density.

The process designer's task is to design the production facilities based on the PVT analysis. The
design comprises the different gasoil separation stages and, depending upon crude conditions,
the design may also include crude heating or cooling, gas compression, and gas disposal. During
the design phase, the stage pressures are optimized to maximize the stabilized crude volume,
and to minimize compression power if ashed gases are compressed.

https://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-93/issue-21/in-this-issue/production/pvt-data-useful-for-design-of-oil-production-facilities.html 1/6
5/9/2019 PVT DATA USEFUL FOR DESIGN OF OIL PRODUCTION FACILITIES - Oil & Gas Journal

To use the PVT analysis more ef ciently for the facility design, it is recommended to constitute
the reservoir uid composition according to this procedure, calculate the main characteristics
of the crude, and then check that the characteristics agree well with the PVT analysis.

FLUID COMPOSITION

The reservoir uid composition given in the PVT analysis is based on chromatography. Because
of the large variation in the boiling range, the heavy components are generally de ned as
pseudocomponents rather than normal paraf ns. The basic physical properties (such as
molecular weight and either normal boiling point or speci c gravity) are calculated from the
boiling range.

Table 1 (17382 bytes) shows the reservoir uid composition obtained from the PVT analysis of
an oil eld in France. Note that the heavier components from C6 are termed as
pseudocomponents, for which only composition is given. Moreover, all components C12 and
heavier are grouped together as a single component C12+, providing its basic physical
properties. Finally, note that the C12+ component constitutes more than 42% of the total
composition.

If one simulates separation stages using the reservoir uid composition as such, it would give
20% error in the saturation bubblepoint pressure, and more than 40% error in GOR.

CRUDE CHARACTERISTICS

Some of the characteristics obtained from the PVT analysis are more important, and these
must be well matched before carrying out the process design.

The most important characteristic is the reservoir uid bubblepoint pressure at well
temperature. A 10% error in the bubblepoint pressure yields about 20% error in GOR and 10%
error in stock-tank oil density.

Once the reservoir uid bubblepoint pressure, as determined by the process simulation,
matches the value obtained from the PVT analysis, then other crude characteristics are easily
matched.

Solution gas-oil ratio is determined by successive ashing of the reservoir uid, at different
pressure levels, from the bubblepoint pressure to atmospheric pressure.

Oil density of the stock tank oil is generally speci ed as API gravity.

https://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-93/issue-21/in-this-issue/production/pvt-data-useful-for-design-of-oil-production-facilities.html 2/6
5/9/2019 PVT DATA USEFUL FOR DESIGN OF OIL PRODUCTION FACILITIES - Oil & Gas Journal

Reid vapor pressure (Rvp) is the internationally recognized method of specifying the vapor
pressure of stored stabilized oil (Refer to ASTM D323). Most simulation software can calculate
this property directly from the given composition.

Once these parameters are matched, it is also desirable to check other physical properties,
such as density and viscosity, of both gas and liquid phases at separation stages to obtain a
reliable process model.

FLUID COMPOSITION

The minimum information necessary for any pseudocomponent is its basic physical properties
such as molecular weight, normal boiling point, and speci c gravity at 15 C. In Table 1 (17382
bytes) , these properties are speci ed only for C12+. It would be impossible to guess these
properties for other pseudocomponents, C6 to C11, and then iterate until the characteristics
of the simulated reservoir uid agrees with those in the PVT analysis.

The simple seven step method is as follows:

1. Specify all the components except the heaviest component as normal paraf ns.

2. For the heaviest component, C12+ in the given example, specify the basic physical
properties as given in the PVT analysis. Simulation software generally needs any two of
three basic properties to generate remaining thermodynamic properties from the built-
in correlations. Table 2 (37681 bytes) shows the properties generated by the Hysim
software for the given example.

3. Using these data, calculate the molecular weight of the reservoir crude and compare it to
the value given in the PVT analysis. If both do not agree, vary the molecular weight of the
heaviest pseudocomponent until the two values are equal.

4. Calculate the bubblepoint pressure of the reservoir uid at reservoir temperature. If this
agrees to the value of the PVT data (this is a rare case unless you are very lucky), go to
Step 7.

5. Note values of the following parameters calculated by the software for the heaviest
component:

Critical pressure (Pc)

https://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-93/issue-21/in-this-issue/production/pvt-data-useful-for-design-of-oil-production-facilities.html 3/6
5/9/2019 PVT DATA USEFUL FOR DESIGN OF OIL PRODUCTION FACILITIES - Oil & Gas Journal

Critical temperature (Tc)

Acentric factor (w)

6. Vary each of the parameters of Step 5 until the calculated bubblepoint pressure matches
the value derived from the PVT analysis. The variation needed for each variable depends
on the nature of the reservoir crude but should not exceed -- 20%.

Moreover, certain parameters may have more in uence than others. For the present
example, it was necessary to vary the critical pressure by only 2%, the other parameters
needed about 20% variation.

Fig. 1 (62514 bytes) shows the sensitivity analysis for three parameters of the example. It
can be seen that different parameter combinations can yield the required result.
Therefore, further checks on other crude characteristics are essential for determining
that the correct parameter values are selected.

7. Once the bubblepoint pressure agrees, tune the other characteristics. For example, if the
reservoir uid viscosity is not matched, vary one or more viscosity correlation constants
in the software.

Table 3 (14050 bytes) gives the calculated and adjusted parameters of the heaviest component
for the given example. Using these adjusted parameters, the reservoir crude bubblepoint
pressures for different temperatures are calculated. The results are presented in Fig. 2 (43080
bytes), and compared to those derived from the PVT analysis. As can be seen, the modi ed
parameters of the heaviest pseudocomponent result in a good prediction.

Sometimes the PVT analysis provides the basic physical properties for all pseudocomponents.
In such a case, one can still follow the above-mentioned procedure, specifying all
pseudocomponents with their basic properties, and varying the critical properties of only the
heaviest pseudocomponent as per Step 5 of the proposed procedure.

DIFFERENTIAL LIBERATION

Differential liberation is the gradual depletion of the reservoir crude from the original
reservoir bubblepoint pressure to near-atmospheric pressure at constant temperature, usually
reservoir temperature.

Fig. 3 (76312 bytes) compares the calculated characteristics to those given by the PVT analysis
by differential vaporization of the crude in the example. The viscosity of the ashed crude at

https://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-93/issue-21/in-this-issue/production/pvt-data-useful-for-design-of-oil-production-facilities.html 4/6
5/9/2019 PVT DATA USEFUL FOR DESIGN OF OIL PRODUCTION FACILITIES - Oil & Gas Journal

different pressures is similarly compared in Fig. 4 (42337 bytes). These gures show that the
predicted characteristics agree well with the PVT analysis.

Differential vaporization, however, is a purely theoretical phenomenon as all ashing is

assumed to take place at constant reservoir temperature. The actual GOR (or GLR) of the
crude may be very different to that calculated by differential vaporization.

Stepwise ash calculations are therefore run to nd the real GOR expected. The calculations
are made for two or three separation stages, at conditions related to the expected facility
operating conditions.

For three-stage separation, Table 4 (20756 bytes) compares the results obtained from a
process simulation with those from the PVT analysis. The process simulation yields the main
crude characteristics with less than 5% error.

FACILITY PERFORMANCE

The process design of the oil eld production facility, selected as an example, was based on the
reservoir uid composition determined from the proposed procedure.

The crude is treated in two separators in series, operating at 5 and 3 bara (73 and 43 psia)
respectively. The pressure of each separator is selected from an optimization study during the
basic engineering phase. The treated crude is stored in an atmosphere tank and eventually
pumped into the existing pipeline. The ef uent water from the separators is treated in a
corrugated separator before entering atmospheric storage.

Fig. 5 (79134 bytes) shows a simpli ed ow scheme of the process facility.

This facility was started up late in 1993, without any major problem. More recently, facility
data have veri ed the validity of the process model developed from the PVT analysis. The
facility data were collected at two different inlet crude temperatures: 36 and 46 C. (97 and
115 F.).

For both temperatures, the actual facility performance agrees well with the predicted
characteristics at each separation stage (Fig. 6) (81897 bytes).

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author expresses his gratitude to ESSO Rep, France, for assistance in providing facility
operation data, and also for permission to publish the data on the crude.

https://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-93/issue-21/in-this-issue/production/pvt-data-useful-for-design-of-oil-production-facilities.html 5/6
5/9/2019 PVT DATA USEFUL FOR DESIGN OF OIL PRODUCTION FACILITIES - Oil & Gas Journal

THE AUTHOR
Shashi Dharmadhikari is a process manager with
Petrotechna, France. He has extensive experience in oil and
gas processing both in process design and eld facility operations.

Before joining Petrotechna, he worked with Technip, France, and Air Products in England.
Dharmadhikari has a PhD from the University of Surrey, England, and is a Fellow of the
Institution of Chemical Engineers, U.K. He holds the title of European Engineer (Feeni, Paris)

Copyright 1995 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.

    

About Us | Site Map | Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions

© 2019 Endeavor Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

https://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-93/issue-21/in-this-issue/production/pvt-data-useful-for-design-of-oil-production-facilities.html 6/6