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An Improved Viscosity-Temperature Correlation for

Crude Oils
a a
Emad Talib Hashim & Abid Ali Hassaballah
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Engineering College of Sabratha, Sabratha, Libya
Version of record first published: 14 Feb 2007.

To cite this article: Emad Talib Hashim & Abid Ali Hassaballah (2003): An Improved Viscosity-Temperature Correlation for
Crude Oils, Petroleum Science and Technology, 21:11-12, 1625-1630

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PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Vol. 21, Nos. 11 & 12, pp. 16251630, 2003

An Improved Viscosity-Temperature Correlation

for Crude Oils
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Emad Talib Hashim* and Abid Ali Hassaballah

Department of Chemical Engineering, Engineering

College of Sabratha, Sabratha, Libya

ABSTRACT

The available data of crude oil viscosity over a temperature range

130220
F and at atmospheric pressure are used to develop a method
to predict the viscosity of crude oils. The proposed correlation
based upon API gravity, and viscosity at reservoir temperature.
The proposed new correlation has been veried using data base
on crude oil of dierent densities, and it shows signicantly better
correlation, with an average absolute deviation (AAD) of 2.8%.

*Correspondence: Emad Talib Hashim, Department of Chemical Engineering,

Engineering College of Sabratha, P.O. Box 51, Sabratha, Libya; E-mail:
emadchm@yahoo.com.

1625

DOI: 10.1081/LFT-120024378 1091-6466 (Print); 1532-2459 (Online)

Copyright & 2003 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. www.dekker.com
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1626 Hashim and Hassaballah

INTRODUCTION

The viscosity is an important property of crude oils, which is a

critical parameter required in various aspects of petroleum engineering
analysis. Accurate data on oil viscosity as function of temperature and
composition are required for reservoir studies and hot pipelines.
Whereas, empirical or semiempirical correlations are available in
literature. Beal (1946), Kats et al. (1959) and Chew and Connally
(1959) on the eect of temperature on viscosity of pure hydrocarbons
and petroleum fractions, little information has been published on crude
oils.
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Some correlations are known to predict the viscosity of dead-oil as

function of API gravity and temperature, (Beal, 1946), or as function of
pour point, API gravity and temperature. The correlation suggested by
Beggs and Robinson (1975), Emmanuel et al. (1990) as follows:
log log
OD 1 a1 a2 go a3 logTf 1
Emnnauel et al. expanded application of Beggs and Robinson (1975)
correlation by introducing the pour point temperature to develop the
following equation:
log log
OD 1 1:7095  0:0089717Tp 2:752380 1:2943
0:0033214Tp 0:9581958 logT  Tf 2
Kouzel (1965) presented an equation to calculate the eect of
pressure on the viscosity of high molecular weight hydrocarbons:
log
=
o P=10000:0239 0:01638
0:278
o 3
The viscosity of crude oil and natural gas liquid (NGL) from North
sea eld were measured by Ahrabi et al. (1987), within the temperature
range 303375K and pressure range 14.5 to ? 6450 psi.
Al-Besharah et al. (1989) developed a new method to predict the
viscosity of crude oils and crude oil mixtures at high pressures and
temperature ranges from 10 to 50
C, as:
vp vo eR p  14:7 4
This method considers the change in density of the crude oils due to
change in temperature.
Mehrotra (1990) developed one parameter viscosity temperature
correlation for the middle-east crude oils and their mixtures based on
Walther correlation:
log logvo 0:7 b1  3:5 log T 5
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Viscosity-Temperature Correlation for Crude Oils 1627

The parameter b1 was suggested as function of density at 25
C.

Furthermore, a model for, the eect of temperature, pressure, and
composition on viscosity of crude oils and their mixtures was developed
by Emmanuel et al. (1990) as follows:

logvp 0:7 10b1 T 3:5 b3 p 6

where the parameter b3 is a constant. The equation was shown to be

accurate with AAD <5%.
The objective of the present work is to develop an accurate viscosity
temperature correlation for crude oils of a wide range of API gravities.
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Correlation Development

In order to nd a functional relationship between viscosity of crude

oil and various other parameters, such as absolute viscosity of gas
free crude at reservoir temperature and API gravity multiple regression
analysis is required.
Introducing the available observed data by Katz and Lee (1990)
to computer program develops a new correlation for the eect of the
temperature on the crude oil viscosity. The obtained equation is:

a1 a2 APIa3 a4
ao5 a6
o=Ba7

 expa8 a9
a010 API=
o a11 =T 7

The constant a1 through a11 for both light and heavy crude oils are
listed in Tables 1 and 2.
Tables 2 shows the results obtained of applying the proposed
correlation for the available data in reference Ahrabi et al. (1987).
These tables show comparisons between observed and the corresponding
calculated viscosity values. The average absolute error for the crude oil is
2.8 for 64 data points.

Table 1. Constants al through a11 of Eq. (7) for crude oil viscosity.

a1 1319.409 a2 2507.447 a3 1.88409

a4 1320.40 a5 0.000513 a6 0.000001
a7 0.750525 a8 5352.503 a9 503.8381
a10 18.7715 a11 42.5157 R 0.9996
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1628 Hashim and Hassaballah

Table 2. Comparison between measured and calculated viscosity.

Temperature (
F)

API
o,Cp 130 160 190 220

20 130
exp 45 22 14 9

calc 44.85 22.82 13.42 9.19
%E 0.3 3.7 3.8 0.0
22 72
exp 22 28 15 9

calc 6 27.58 40.42 8.83
%E 6.3 1.5 3.9 1.8
24 47
exp 18 10 6 4
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calc 19.06 10.10 6.30 4.57

%E 5.9 0.9 0.1 3.8
26 28
exp 13 6.9 4.4 3.2

calc 12.61 6.89 4.47 3.36
%E 3.0 0.1 1.5 4.9
28 18
exp 9 5 3.4 2.4

calc 8.85 4.97 3.32 2.57
%E 1.7 0.6 2.3 7.0
30 16
exp 7.3 4.2 2.8 2.1

calc 7.43 4.05 2.62 1.97
%E 1.7 3.5 6.3 2.3
32 9
exp 4.9 3 1.9 1.6

calc 5.00 2.91 2.02 1.62
%E 1.9 3.1 6.3 1.0
34 6
exp 3.9 2.5 1.6 1.3

calc 3.95 2.32 1.62 1.31
%E 1.3 7.4 1.4 0.5
36 5
exp 3 2 1.3 1.1

calc 3.10 1.87 1.35 1.11
%E 3.2 6.7 3.4 0.6
38 4
exp 2.6 1.6 1.1 0.9

calc 2.54 1.54 1.12 0.93
%E 2.3 2.6 1.7 2.8
40 3
exp 3 2.1 1.3 0.97

calc 2.14 1.86 0.93 0.76
%E 1.7 1.0 4.6 1.7
42 2
exp 1.8 1.1 0.8 0.65

calc 1.80 1.09 0.79 0.65
%E 0.1 0.9 1.4 0.2
44 2
exp 1.5 1 0.7 0.55

calc 1.54 0.93 0.67 0.55
%E 2.5 7.2 4.3 0.3

(continued )
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Viscosity-Temperature Correlation for Crude Oils 1629

Table 2. Continued.

Temperature (
F)

API
o,Cp 130 160 190 220

46 2
exp 1.4 0.80 0.60 0.47

calc 1.33 0.81 0.59 0.49
%E 5.3 1.4 1.1 5.0
48 1.7
exp 1.1 0.7 0.5 0.42

calc 1.16 0.72 .53 0.45
%E 5.4 2.7 6.3 6.2
50 1.6
exp 1.0 0.60 0.45 0.35
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calc 1.02 0.61 0.43 0.35

%E 1.5 1.1 3.7 1.2

CONCLUSION

The eect of temperature on viscosity of crude oils was studied. A

general correlation was developed to predict viscosity of crude oils of a
wide range of
API gravities, 2050
C. The correlation gives an overall
absolute average 2.8% for 64 viscosity measurements.

NOTATIONS

API Gravity
Cp Specic heat
p pressure (psi)
p* Dimensionless gauge pressure ( p/po  1)
R Slope (dIn()Idp) dened by Al-Besharah et al. (1989)
Tf Crude oil temperature (
F)

Greek Letters

 Kinematic viscosity (cst)

 Crude oil gravity (
API)

Dynamic viscosity (cP)

o Dynamic viscosity at reservoir temperature (cP)

OD Dead oil viscosity (cP)
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1630 Hashim and Hassaballah

Subscripts

calc Calculated value

exp Experimental value
o Atmospheric pressure
p Pressure

REFERENCES

Ahrabi, F., Ashcroft, S. J., Shearn, R. B. (1987). High pressure

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volumetric phase composition and viscosity data for a North Sea

crude oil and NGL. Chem. Eng. Res. Des. 63:65.
Al-Besharah, J. M., Akashah, S. A., Clive, J. M. (1989). Ind. Eng. Chem.
Res. 28:213221.
Beal, C. (1946). Trans. AIME 165:94115.
Beggs, H. D., Robinson, J. R. (I975). J. Pet. Technol. Sep:1140.
Chew, J., Connally, C. A. (1959). Trans. AIME 216:2325.
Emmanuel, O., Egbogah, Jack, T. (1990). An improved temperature
viscosity correlation for crude oil system. J. Pet. Sci. & Technol.
5:197200.
Kats, D. L., Cornell, D., Kohayashi, R., Poettmann, F. H., Vary, J. A.,
Elenhaas, J. R., Weinaug, C. F. (1959). Handbook of Natural Gas
Engineering. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.
Katz, D. L., Lee, R. (1990). Natural Gas Engineering Production and
Storage. New York: Mc-Graw-Hill.
Kouzel, B. (1965). How pressure aects liquid viscosity. Hydrocarbon
Proc. Pet. Ren. 44(3):120.
Mehrotra, A. K. (1990). Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 29:15741578.

Received February 28, 2002

Accepted September 23, 2002