DAVID VOORHIS & ASSOCIATES
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IV. Petroleum Engineering Consulting Service

Reservoir Fluid PVT Analyses/Simulations

 
     
 
  Knowledge of the type of reservoir fluid is useful for planning the most efficient development and depletion of an oil and gas reservoir....Pressure-Volume-Temperature (PVT) characteristics of a reservoir fluid have an effect on the total recovery of the reservoir fluids....Early in the life of a reservoir, total recovery estimates can be made that are primarily based on PVT characteristics of the reservoir fluid.....As more production and reservoir data becomes available, the influence of the reservoir permeability characteristics can be incorporated into more refined petroleum engineering techniques for more accurate methods of predicting and optimizing future recovery.  
     
  Petroleum Engineers are educated and trained in engineering techniques that recover more hydrocarbons from a reservoir than what would be recovered under normal or natural pressure depletion (i.e., primary depletion)....Reservoir fluids that tend to provide the greatest opportunity for improved recovery, through pressure maintenance type operations, are gas condensates, retrograde gas condensates and volatile oils....These reservoir fluids tend to have poor liquid (oil) recoveries under primary depletion because much of the hydrocarbon liquid that drops out of solution during pressure depletion, is left in the reservoir upon abandonment..  
     
  Figure 10.1 provides a comparison of average hydrocarbon liquid recoveries for gas condensates, retrograde gas condensates and volatile oils....The bar chart recoveries are from a numerical simulation study that used a 2-dimensional, radial numerical simulator (r-z coordinates, 360°) to model the primary depletion drainage of 40 acres by a single well....The same absolute and relative permeability data was used in the simulations for all the reservoir fluids considered by the study.  
     
     
     
 

Figure 10.1 : Comparison of Primary Depletion Oil In Place Recoveries for Gas Condensate, Near Critical Gas Condensate and Volatile Oil Reservoirs

 
 
     
 

 
     
 
  Before a simulation study of recoveries can be performed, accurate descriptions of the reservoir fluids are needed....The most accurate descriptions are obtained by either recovering a downhole sample or a combined sample from surface production equipment....The fluid samples should be recovered while the reservoir is at or above the initial saturation pressure of the reservoir fluid....The reservoir fluid sample is then sent to a laboratory for PVT analyses....The most common type of analyses or tests are: Constant Composition Expansion (CCE), Constant Volume Expansion (CVE) and Differential Liberation (DL) tests....The results of these laboratory tests are used to create mathematical models of the PVT fluid behavior which are used to model the fluid behavior in the numerical reservoir simulators.  
     
  Primary depletion process of a reservoir is approximated by the procedures used in CCE and CVE tests....These laboratory tests are important in that they reveal how hydrocarbon liquid drops out of solution within the reservoir as the reservoir pressure depletes....Reservoirs that have low hydrocarbon liquid recoveries under primary depletion tend to leave a high percentage of hydrocarbon liquid within the test cell of CCE and CVE tests at the abandonment reservoir pressure....One of the main reasons for low hydrocarbon liquid recovery when hydrocarbon liquid saturations are high are the relative permeability restrictions caused by liquid accumulation in the reservoir pore spaces.  
     
  The following 4 figures illustrate the test cell diagrams and hydrocarbon saturation profiles of Constant Volume Expansion (CVE) and Constant Composition Expansion (CCE) Tests on a range of 8 reservoir fluid types....The CCE and CVE saturation profiles are from "tuned" Peng-Robinson Equation Of State (EOS) simulations. The abandonment reservoir pressure for both tests is usually above 100 psi.  
     
     
     
 

Figure 10.2 : General Diagram of Laboratory Procedure for Constant Volume Expansion (CVE) Test

 
 
     
 

 
     
     
     
     
 

Figure 10.3 : Profiles of Hydrocarbon Liquid Saturation vs. Pressure during Constant Volume Expansion (CVE) Tests

 
     
 

 
     
     
     
 

Figure 10.4 : General Diagram of Laboratory Procedure for Constant Composition Expansion (CCE) Test

 
     
 

 
     
     
     
 

Figure 10.5 : Profiles of Hydrocarbon Liquid Saturation vs. Pressure during Constant Composition Expansion (CCE) Tests

 
     
 

 
     
     
 

 

 
 
 

Reservoir Fluid PVT Simulations and Analyses are one of many Engineering Studies that can be performed by David Voorhis & Associates.

 
 
     
 

  
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