Webinar

Gas Condensate PVT

What’s Really Important and Why?
Curtis Hays Whitson | Øivind Fevang (Equinor) | Tao Yang (Equinor)

9 June 2021
4-5 pm Central Europe Time
9-10 am Central Time (CT)
8-9 am Mountain Time (MDT)

Paper originally presented at IBC Conference, January

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1
28-29, 1998 London (23rd anniversary)
Confidential Report
 Webinar Strategy

• Electronic materials provided after Webinar

• Original IBC paper
• Slide presentation with Q&A notes
• Video link

• Questions:
• Name (optional)
• Slide #
• Brief text
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 Goals

Give a review of the key PVT data dictating

recovery and well performance of gas
condensate reservoirs

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Confidential Report 3
 Introduction

• Gas condensate engineering =

Gas engineering + extra “magic”

• extra magic
• Surface condensate recovery (+)
• Condensate Blockage (–)
• Gas Cycling (±)

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 Topics

• PVT Experiments
• Initial Fluids in Place and Depletion Recoveries
• PVT Modeling
• Condensate Blockage
• Gas Cycling Condensate Recoveries

Topics covered in Whitson 5-day Gas Condensate Course

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 PVT Priority List

Different fields require different accuracy for

different PVT properties

• Field development strategy (depletion vs. cycling)

• Low or high permeability
• Saturated or highly undersaturated
• Offshore vs. onshore
• Discovery | Delineation | Development phase

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 PVT Experiments
Constant Composition (Mass) Expansion Test (CCE)

Data
pd
Zg
Vro=Vo/Vt
or
Vro=Vo/Vd

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Confidential Report 8
 PVT Experiments
Constant Volume Depletion Test (CVD)

Data
pd
yi
np/nd
Zg
Vro

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 Initial Fluids in Place (IFIP)
and Depletion Recoveries

• Gas Z-factor
• Compositional (C6+) Variation During Depletion
• Surface condensate volume ~ C6+ mol-% (y6+)
• Producing CGR ~ y6+/(1-y6+) | STB/MMscf (Sm3/106Sm3)

• Compositional Variation with Depth

• Dewpoint Pressure

• Gas-Oil Contacts
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 Gas Z-Factor

• Gas Z-factor must always be determined

accurately in a gas condensate reservoir
because it impacts:

• Both IGIP & ICIP (G and N)

• Both Gp(pR) & Np(pR) depletion recoveries

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 Gas Condensate Viscosity

Estimate Liquid Viscosity Measurement of

Condensate Viscosity Single Phase Gas Condensate

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 CVD Compositional (Cn+) Variation

• Forecast the condensate rate (CGR) profile

• Calculate gas and condensate recovery profiles

(neglecting water influx/expansion)

• Define gas cycling potential

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 Condensate Recovery from CVD & CCE Data

 (p / Z )d  (p / Z )d N  ∆np  (1/ rsi + Cog )

= 1 −  + ⋅ ∑   ⋅
(p / Z )i  (p / Z )i k =1  nd k (1/ rsk + Cog )
RFoD


y CVDn + 1
rs ~ rp rs ≅ ⋅
(producing CGR) 1 − y CVDn + Cog
R Tsc ρ n +
Cog = ⋅
Psc M n +

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 Depletion Recoveries from CVD & CCE Data
CVD Data Conversion to Surface Oil and Gas Recoveries
Based on Simplified Surface Flash (Surface Gas = C
C6- and
(n-1)- & Surface Oil = C7+)
Cn+
© PERA a/s, programmed by Curtis H. Whitson (19981126)

Cn+ Mole Weight

C7+ 161 kg/kmol
Cn+ Density
C7+ 830 kg/m3
Cog 122 Sm3/Sm3 (assumed constant)
(p/z)i/(p/z)d 0.9120 Approx.
Solution
Input (red) CCE CVD CVD OGR
P Z np/n dnp/nd yn+
7+ rs RFg RFo
bara % % mol-% Sm3/Sm3 % %
Pi 532 1.2172 0.000 3.996 3.407E-04 0.00 0.00
Pd 430 1.0788 0.000 0.000 3.996 3.407E-04 8.80 8.80
408 2.710 2.710 3.339 2.827E-04 11.29 10.87
372 7.070 4.360 3.366 2.851E-04 15.29 14.22
320 14.720 7.650 2.875 2.423E-04 22.35 19.24
272 24.420 9.700 2.245 1.880E-04 31.36 24.21
221 36.060 11.640 1.742 1.451E-04 42.22 28.83
170 49.130 13.070 1.302 1.080E-04 54.48 32.72
121 62.630 13.500 1.055 8.727E-05 67.17 35.97
62 79.160 16.530 0.675 5.562E-05 82.76 38.52

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 Depletion Recoveries from CVD & CCE Data
600

Surface Gas
500
RFo = RFg @ p≥pd Surface Oil
CVD (Reservoir) Pressure, bara

400

300

200

Condensate Gas
100

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Surface Gas and Surface Oil Recovery Factors

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 “Representative” Samples

• “Reservoir Representative”
• Any uncontaminated fluid sample that produces from a
reservoir is automatically representative of that
reservoir... after all, the sample is produced from the
reservoir!

• “Insitu Representative”
• A sample representative of the original fluid in place (usually
of a limited volume within the reservoir)

Accuracy of PVT Data ≠ Insitu Representivity of Sample

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 Dewpoint Pressure

• Dewpoint marks the pressure where:

• Reservoir gas phase

(~ producing wellstream) starts becoming leaner

• Incipient condensate phase appears

May be important in estimating downdip oil (GOC)

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 PVT Modeling
PVT Data

EOS
Model

Black-Oil
Model

Bo, Rs, Bgd, rs

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 EOS Modeling

• Molar composition and C7+ Properties

• Splitting the plus fraction (3-5 C7+ )

• Tuning EOS parameters

• Common EOS model for multiple reservoir fluids

• Reducing number of components

lumping | pseudoizing | grouping
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 Black-Oil PVT Properties

= V o
= oil formation volume factor
Bo
V OO
V go
Rs = = solution gas- oil ratio
V oo
Vg
Bgd = = dry gas formation volume factor
V gg
V og
rs = = solution oil- gas ratio
V gg

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 rs/Bgd

“surface oil in place per reservoir gas volume”

(~ CVD y6+)

The term rs/Bgd is the quantity needed by “geologists”

to convert reservoir gas pore volumes to surface oil –
a kind of “inverse oil FVF (1/Bo)” for the reservoir gas
phase.

For compositionally-grading reservoirs with a

transition from gas to oil through an undersaturated
(critical) state, the term rs/Bgd=1/Bo exactly at the gas-
oil contact.

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 Generating Black-Oil PVT Tables

• Consistency between lab data vs BO & EOS models

• Extrapolating saturated tables
• Non-monotonic saturated oil properties
• Handling saturated gas/oil systems
• Initializing reservoirs with compositional gradients

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 Compositional Variation with Depth

• Effect of a gradient on IFIPs

• Effect of compositional gradients on depletion

(and cycling) recoveries

• Prediction of gas-oil contact using a theoretical

gradient model

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 Gas-Oil Contact & Fluid Gradient
New Technologies since 1998

SPE 63085 Pictures from Schlumberger

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 Condensate Blockage
Near-Wellbore Steady State Region

Relative Permeability
krg = f(krg/kro)

“Pure” PVT
krg/kro=(1/Vro – 1)(µg/µo)

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 Cedric K. Ferguson Award (1997)
Øivind Fevang

Best Paper Award SPERE (1996)

Øivind Fevang & Curtis H. Whitson

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 Condensate Blockage
Near-Wellbore Steady State Region
1.0

Miscible
0.9
5.00E-03
v sµ g
0.8
5.00E-04 Nc =
0.7 5.00E-05
σ go
Immiscible
0.6
Krg

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0
1.00E-02 1.00E-01 1.00E+00 1.00E+01 1.00E+02
Krg/Kro
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 Condensate Blockage
Near-Wellbore Steady State Region

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 Gas Cycling

• Evaluating Gas Cycling Potential using Depletion

(CVD & CCE) Data

• Evaluating Different Components of Condensate

Recovery
• Initial Depletion
• Gas-Gas Miscible
• Vaporization
• Post-Cycling Depletion

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 Gas Cycling – Highly Undersaturated Reservoir
100

90

80 RFoV
Recovery of Condensate, % IOIP

70

60
RFoM
50 RFoDx

40

30
RFoD Initial
20 Pressure

10

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Pressure, bara

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 Gas Cycling – Saturated Reservoir
100
Recovery of Condensate, % IOIP

80
RFoV

60

40 RFoM
RFoDx Initial
Pressure
=
20 Dewpoint
RFoD

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
Pressure, bara

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 Notes
from Q&A

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Confidential Report 42
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