Reservoir and fluid properties

(Eclipse Black Oil)

This exercise concentrates on studying of the main fluid and reservoir parameters
required to the black oil simulator and then proceeds to describe how these
parameters can be determined from the given tables and data set in the model.

1. ROCK AND GRID PROPERTIES

1.1 Pore volume
Cell pore volume is determined as:

PV = Vcell NTG

Vcell

(1)

- volume of one cell,

- porosity,

NTG - net-to-gross (net thickness) is the ratio between the thickness of productive
(net) reservoir rock and the total (gross) reservoir thickness.

1.2 Oil reserves

Volumetric estimation is concerned with quantifying how much oil and gas exists in
the accumulation. Volumetric estimations of the oil in the reservoir is required at the
all stages of the field life cycle.

STOIIP = GRV NTG S o

1
1
= PORV S o
Bo
Bo

STOIIP - Stock Tank Oil Initially In Place, SM3

GRV is the gross rock volume of the hydrocarbon-bearing interval, RM3
PORV is the total reservoir pore volume, RM3,
So is oil saturation,
Bo is oil formation volume factor.

1.2 Transmissibility
To calculate the flow between the cells Eclipse uses the following expression:
FLOW = Transmissibility * Mobility * Potential difference

Transmissibility is a property shared between connected cells, i.e. cells between

which fluids may flow. In a system of discrete grid cells fluid flow is calculated
between the centers of the grid blocks.
The transmissibility (T) between a pair of connected cells is calculated from the cell
geometry (A, L), permeability (K) and net to gross (NTG). The simplest methods are
to calculate the flows between two neighbouring cells by considering either the flow
between the cell centers (at which the cell properties are averaged).

T( x , y , z ) =

K ( x , y , z ) A( x , y , z ) NTG
L( x , y , z )

In block centered grid Eclipse calculates the transmissibility with dip correction:

TRAN X =

X-axis:

where

C DARCY = 0.00852702 Darcys constant for Metric System of units,

TMLTX
A
DIPC

C DARCY TMLTX A DIPC

B

Transmissibility multiplier for cell i (MULTX in GRID section),

Interface area between cell i and i+1,
is a dip correction.

Fig.1 Transmissibility definition in block centered model.

(2)

A=

( DX i +1 DYi DZ i + DX i DYi +1 DZ i +1 )
DX i + DX i +1

DX i DX i +1
+

K
K i +1
i

B=
,
2

Ki permeability [mD]

DIPC =

DHS
DHS+DVS

DX i + DX i +1
DHS =

2
DVS = ( Depthi Depthi +1 )
2

DHS is a horizontal deviation

DVS is a vertical deviation

2. EQUATIONS OF STATES (EOS) FOR RESERVOIR FLUIDS

The black oil equation of state (EoS) treats oil as a single phase whose properties
depend only on pressure. Black oil in terms of PVT is far from the critical point and its
compositional changes are insignificant. Then, the composition of black oil is treated
as fixed; the fluid properties are comparatively stable and can be represented by a
set of tables of PVT properties as functions of pressure.
A black oil model can be used to model live oil provided several conditions are met to
an acceptable degree i.e. the PVT model is fit for the intended purpose:
The oil composition does not change when gas comes out of solution!!!
Ideally this means that the distribution of hydrocarbon molecular
weights (or fingerprint) is the same for oil and gas. Since this is
impossible, the engineer has to be satisfied that the oil properties do
not change significantly when gas comes out of solution.
ECLIPSE black oil simulator cannot model compositional changes explicitly. If
processes such as liberation of gas or condensate dropout need to be modelled, it
has to be done indirectly by allowing the solution GOR (Rs) and vapor OGR (Rv) to
vary. Fluids having these characteristics are referred to as live oils and wet gases,
respectively.
Black oil is taken to be at a fixed temperature and the reservoir, well and surface
temperatures are each taken to be constant. If required, to take into account the
differences in temperatures, different PVT tables can be used for reservoir, well and
surface conditions.

2.1 Bubble-Point Pressure (Saturation 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. This important
property can be measured experimentally for a crude oil system by conducting a
constant-composition expansion test. The bubble-point pressure is a function of gas
solubility RS, gas density g, oil density o, and temperature T:
Pb = f (RS, g, o, T)

2.2 Oil reservoirs classification

Depending on initial reservoir pressure Pi, oil reservoirs can be sub-classified into the
following categories:
1. Undersaturated oil reservoir. If the initial reservoir pressure Pi, is greater than
the bubble-point pressure Pb of the reservoir fluid, the reservoir is called an
undersaturated oil reservoir.
Pi > Pb
2. Saturated oil reservoir. When the initial reservoir pressure is equal to the bubblepoint pressure of the reservoir fluid, the reservoir is called a saturated oil reservoir.
Pi = Pb
3. Gas-cap reservoir. If the initial reservoir pressure is below the bubble point
pressure of the reservoir fluid the reservoir is called a gas-cap or two-phase
reservoir, in which the gas or vapor phase is underlain by an oil phase.
Pi < Pb

2.3 Formation Volume Factor (FVF) of reservoir fluids

Oil formation volume factor
The oil formation volume factor, Bo, is defined as the ratio of the volume of oil (plus
the gas in solution) at the prevailing reservoir temperature and pressure to the
volume of oil at standard conditions. Bo is always greater than or equal to unity. The
oil formation volume factor can be expressed mathematically as:

Vor
Bo = s
Vo
Vor

is oil volume under reservoir pressure p and temperature T.

Vos is oil volume measured under standard conditions.

Fig. Oil formation volume factor versus pressure.

A typical oil formation factor curve, as a function of pressure for an undersaturated

crude oil (Pi > Pb), is shown in Fig.
As the pressure is reduced below the initial reservoir pressure Pi the oil volume
increases due to the oil expansion. This behaviour results in an increase in the oil
formation volume factor and will continue until the bubble-point pressure is reached.
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 is liberated. When the
pressure is reduced to atmospheric pressure and the temperature to standard
condition, the value of Bo is equal to one.

Gas formation volume factor

The gas formation volume factor is used to relate the volume of gas, as measured at
reservoir conditions, to the volume of the gas as measured at standard conditions.
This gas property is then defined as the actual volume occupied by a certain amount
of gas at a specified pressure and temperature, divided by the volume occupied by
the same amount of gas at standard conditions. In an equation form, the relationship
is expressed as

Bg =

Vgr

Vgr
Vgs

is gas volume under reservoir pressure p and temperature T.

Vgs is gas volume at standard conditions.

Applying the real gas equation-of-state and substituting for the volume V, gives:

zn
RT
z P stT
P
Bg = st
=
z n
T st P
st
RT
P st
Where P - pressure, T - temperature, n - number of moles of gas, R - the universal
gas constant, z - gas compressibility factor.

Fig. Gas formation volume factor versus pressure.

Water formation volume factor

The oil formation volume factor, Bw, is defined as the ratio of the volume of water at
the reservoir temperature and pressure to the volume of water at standard
conditions. The water formation volume factor can be expressed as:

Vwr
Bw = s
Vw
Vwr

is water volume under reservoir pressure p and temperature T.

Vws is water volume measured under standard conditions.

The water formation volume factor is a function of pressure, temperature and the
quantity of dissolved gas:
B w = f ( P , T , dissolved gas )

Because gas solubility is very low in water compared to that in oil, it is common
practice to neglect compressibility and the gas solubility of water. Assuming
negligible thermal expansion, water formation volume factor is assumed to be 1.0.
At actual field situation water shows the gas solubility and thus, shrinks under the
pressure reduction.

2.4 Reservoir densities

During simulation, ECLIPSE calculates material balance for each cell at each time
step. To do this, the density of each phase must be calculated. The fluid density is
defined as the mass of a unit volume of fluid at a specified pressure and temperature.
In the black oil case the density of each phase depends on pressure and the
quantities of dissolved components in each phase, so reservoir densities ( ) of oil,
r

gas and water are computed from surface densities ( ) using following
expression:
s

=
r
o

Where

Bw

Rs

os + Rs gs
Bo

=
r
g

gs + Rv os
Bg

- gas solubility or solution gas ratio;

Rv

=
r
w

ws
Bw

- vapour oil-gas ratio;

(3)

Bo , Bg ,

- formation volume factor of oil, gas and water respectively.

2.5 Solution gas-oil ratio

The purpose of the solution gas-oil ratio (Rs) in the black oil equation of state is to
describe the effect of the dissolved gas component on the oil phase properties. For a
dead oil Rs is fixed; for live oil Rs may vary.
The solution gas oil ratio Rs, which is the number of standard cubic feet of gas which
will dissolve in one stock tank barrel of oil when both are taken down to the reservoir
at the prevailing reservoir pressure and temperature:

Rs =

Vgs
Vos

Fig. Gas solubility pressure diagram.

2.6 Producing GOR

The producing gas oil ratio GOR is the ratio between the amount of standard cubic
feet of gas and the amount of oil produced at stock tank condition (surface condition).
If GOR is constant, it means that no liberated gas formed in the reservoir and the
pressure is higher than the Pb.

Fig. Producing Gas oil Ratio.

2.7 Vapor oil-gas ratio

The vapor oil-gas ratio (Rv) describes the vaporized oil component in the gas phase.
For a dry gas Rv is fixed; for wet gas Rv may vary.
Rv is an amount of surface oil vaporised in reservoir vapor:

Vos
Rv = s
Vg

2.8 Live Oil PVT Data Entry (PVTO and PVCO keywords)
The PVTO keyword (PVT live Oil with dissolved gas) is used to specify properties of
oil above (undersaturated) and below (saturated) the bubble point

Fig. Behaviour of live oil

Because gas solubility Rs depends on the pressure, the table RSVD (variation of
initial gas solubility Rsi with depth) can be provided in Eclipse. This Rs is a maximal
solubility of gas in oil.
Knowing the Rs for given datum depth the saturation pressure can be determined
from the PVTO table. On the Fig. red curve corresponds to the Rs versus saturation
pressure, so for Rs=139 sm3/sm3 the bubble-point pressure is 210 bar.
The limit green curve on the fig. corresponds to the oil FVF for saturated oil, or the oil
FVF for the saturated pressure. For pressure higher than Pb, the oil is

undersaturated and the oil FVF can be found from the brunches of green curves.
First of all the FVF for the determined Pb shoud be found, then following the brunche
for undersaturated oil the FVF for higher pressure can be determined.
At the same way the viscosity for saturated and undersaturated oil calculates in
Eclipse.
The live oil properties can be presented in Eclipse in the simplified form with the
PVCO keyword. The difference between the two keywords is that the PVCO keyword
assumes that undersaturated oil with a particular Rs value has a compressibility that
is independent of the pressure, and that the viscosity of undersaturated oil has a
pressure- independent derivative. Thus there is no need to provide tables of
undersaturated oil formation volume factor and viscosity versus pressure.

2.9 Dry Gas PVT properties

The PVDG keyword is used to specify properties of gas below the dew point. It is a
table of formation volume factor and viscosity versus pressure.

Fig. PVDG plot of dry gas properties.

Wet Gas PVT Data Entry Using PVTG

The PVTG keyword is used to specify properties of gas above (undersaturated) and
below (saturated) the dew point. It is a table of Rv, Bg and viscosity as functions of
pressure. The undersaturated Rv, Bg and g must be specified at the highest Pg in
the table.

Fig. Wet gas data using PVTG (Rv, Bg, and g versus OGR).

Ex. Reservoir and fluid properties (Eclipse Black Oil)

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