CHAPTER OUTCOMES

• At the end of this session students should be able to

Reservoir Engineering and Simulation
– Know the uses and challenges of compositional simulation
(Compositional Simulation) – Discover Application areas of Compositional simulation

– Understand the concept of compositional simulation.

– Apply the Governing Equations for Compositional Simulation.

Dr Jeb Gholinezhad

Black Oil and Compositional

Compositional Model
Fluid Models
• Black Oil Model • Compositional Model
– Oil and Gas phases are represented by two components: – Oil and Gas phases are represented by multicomponent
one ‘component’ called oil and another ‘component’ mixtures.
called gas.
 Uses of Compositional Simulation Cont’d
Volatile oil (oAPI changes, oil vaporizes) If the reservoir temperature and pressure are close to
Miscible EOR (CO2, LPG) the critical point of the reservoir fluid, or if they get
Condensate (cycling, oil flows) close to each other during the simulation
Gas cycling (injection of dry gas) Even if we are not injecting gas into a reservoir, we
Injecting new fluid (N2) may still need to consider compositional simulation if
Cases where gas injection/re-injection into an oil produces a there are:
large compositional changes • Large compositional variations with depth
• Large temperature variation with depth
• Large compositional variation in the x-y direction

When to use Black Oil Simulation! Advantages of Compositional Simulation

• If the reservoir stays as a single-phase oil or a single-phase gas • Compositional simulators can account for the effects of
during it’s entire history, away from the critical point, then it composition on:
can in general be modeled with a black-oil model.
• Changes in phase behavior
• If the reservoir is two-phase at any time during the
simulation then there will be some compositional effects. In • Multi-contact miscibility
many cases however these can be approximated by varying gas/ • Immiscible or near-miscible displacement behavior in
oil and oil/gas ratios to mimic small compositional changes. compositionally dependent mechanisms such as
– Condensate dropout or gas liberation should be a small part vaporization, condensation, and oil swelling
of the hydrocarbon in place.
• Composition-dependent phase properties such as
– Remaining hydrocarbon composition should not change viscosity and density on miscible sweep-out
significantly when gas is liberated or condensate drops out
• Interfacial Tension (IFT) especially the effect of IFT
on residual oil saturation.
 Difficulties with Compositional Summary
Simulation
Differences Between black Oil and Compositional Simulations
• There are a number of issues that may need to be
considered when running any compositional Black Oil Simulation Compositional Simulation
simulator.
• Components: Oil and gas Phase: • Components: HCs (C1, C2,
– Calculating phase composition around the critical point can Oil and gas …)Non HCs (CO2, H2S,…)
be difficult. • HC composition remains constant Phases: Oil and gas
– Modeling viscous fingering in large grid blocks is not easy. • All fluid properties are assumed • HC composition varies as the
to be determined by oil pressure reservoir is drained.
– Numerical dispersion is an issue in both black-oil and and bubble point pressure only • All fluid properties are assumed
compositional simulation, but can have a greater effect • mass transfer between the two to be determined by oil pressure,
phases is normally described by bubble point pressure and
during compositional model. the solution gas-oil ratio term, Rso Composition
– Larger computational time • Mass transfer is dealt with Flash
Calculation (either using K-
Values or EOS)

The General equation PVT prediction methods

For a two phase Oil/gas system The methods used for PVT prediction are as follows:
Black Oil 1)K-value, pk (convergence pressure) method.(This
method is faster and can be matched with lab data and
𝜕 𝜕
- 𝜌𝑔𝑢𝑔 + 𝜌 𝑜 𝑢 𝑜 = ∅ 𝜌𝑔𝑆𝑔 + 𝜌𝑜𝑆𝑜 EOS , but it needs correction for the density of oil and the
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑡 density of gas)
2)Equation of State method (EOS).( It matches more
Compositional accurate with the lab data and we can get the density of
oil and gas)
𝜕 𝜕
− 𝐶𝑘𝑔 𝜌𝑔 𝑢𝑔 + 𝐶𝑘𝑜 𝜌𝑜 𝑢𝑜 = ∅ 𝐶𝑘𝑔 𝜌𝑔 𝑆𝑔 + 𝐶𝑘𝑜 𝜌𝑜 𝑆𝑜 a) Peng-Robinson
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑡
b) Soave-Redlich-Kwong
 K-Value Method
• When the vapor and liquid phases are in • Consider one mole of a fluid of composition z1, z2...
equilibrium, the molecules of each component are zN that splits at some pressure and temperature (P,
condensing and vaporizing at the same rate. T) into L moles of liquid of composition x1, x2...xN
and V moles of vapor composition y1, y2... yN.
vapor 𝑦𝑖 = mole fraction of component 𝑖 in vapor phase
• Then
𝑥𝑖 = mole fraction of component 𝑖 in liquid phase 𝐿+𝑉 =1
𝑧𝑖 = total mole fraction of component 𝑖

𝑦 𝐿𝑥𝑖 + 𝑉𝑦𝑖 = 𝑧𝑖
𝑘 =
𝑥𝑖 Substituting for L and using the definition of 𝐾𝑖

𝑧𝑖 𝐾𝑖𝑧𝑖
𝑥𝑖 = and 𝑦𝑖 =
1+𝑉 𝐾𝑖−1 1+𝑉 𝐾𝑖−1

From which

𝑁 𝑁
𝑧𝑖 𝐾𝑖 − 1
∑ 𝑦𝑖 − 𝑥 𝑖 = ∑ =0
1 + 𝑉 𝐾𝑖 − 1 • K-values tend to get closer to 1 as pressure and temperature increases.
𝑖= 𝑖=1
1
QUIZ: what does a K-value of 1 indicate??????
• The equation is called Rachford-Rice equation
 .

Example EOS Methods

• Consider a fluid made up of only three components,
C1, C3 and C10. The composition of the fluid is Van der waals:
𝑛 2
𝑉
Z1 = 0.8 so we have 80% C1 𝑃+𝑎 − 𝑏 = 𝑅𝑇
𝑉 𝑛
Z2 = 0.1 so we have 10% C3
Z3 = 0.1 so we have 10% C10 ▪ The constants a and b have positive values and are
characteristic of the individual gas.
K1 =11, K2 = 1, K3 = 0.1 ▪ The van der Waals equation of state approaches the ideal
• what is the value of V? gas law PV = nRT as the values of these constant approach
zero.
• what is the value of L?
▪ The constant a provides a correction for the intermolecular
• What is the composition of the oil and of the gas? forces.
▪ Constant b is a correction for finite molecular size and its
value is the volume of one mole of the atoms or molecules.
 Using the Peng‐Robinson EOS to
Using the Van der Waals EOS to calculate
molar volume and compressibility model the phase behavior
A shallow reservoir in the UK is at a temperature of 100°F Propane has the following properties: a critical
and a pressure of 300 psia (2.0 MPa). The fluid is pure temperature of 370 K; a critical pressure of 42.5 bars;
methane. and an acentric factor of 0.152. The gas constant is 83.1
cm3‐bar/mol/K. Calculate the attraction and covolume
1. Calculate the molar volume of methane at reservoir parameters, “a” and “b” and the temperature
conditions using the Van der Waals EOS. What is the
compressibility factor? You will need to iterate a few dependence parameter α at a temperature of 40°C.
times until convergence to find the solution. Tc=370k
Pc=42.5x105Pa
2. Calculate the specific volume of methane at reservoir
conditions using the ideal gas equation. What is the
ω=0.152
compressibility factor?

Summary
Uses of Black Oil and Compositional Simulation The Governing Equations

Black Oil Compositional • We define

Ckg = mass fraction of component k present in the gas
• Primary depletion • Miscible Gas injection phase and
• Water flooding CO2 flooding).
• Immiscible gas injection • Gas condensate reservoir Cko = mass fraction of component k present in the oil
• Imbibition depletion (Gas cycling,
oil flows). phase.
• The modeling of gas • Thus, we have the conditions that for a system of Nc
injection into near critical
reservoirs components:
• Miscible flooding by 𝑁𝑐 𝑁𝑐
CO2 or enriched gas
injection
∑ 𝐶𝑘𝑜 = 1 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ∑ 𝐶𝑘𝑔 = 1
• Injecting new fluid (N2) 𝑘=1 𝑘=1
 • Thus, we may write flow equations for Nc components as:
𝜕 𝑘𝑘𝑟 𝑔 𝜕𝑃𝑔 𝑘𝑘𝑟 𝑜 𝜕𝑃𝑜 𝜕
𝐶𝑘𝑔 𝜌𝑔 + 𝐶𝑘𝑜 𝜌𝑜 = ∅ 𝐶𝑘𝑔 𝜌𝑔 𝑆𝑔 + 𝐶𝑘𝑜 𝜌𝑜 𝑆𝑜
𝜕𝑥 𝜇𝑔 𝜕𝑥 𝜇𝑜 𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑡
𝑘 = 1, 2, 3, … 𝑁𝑐
• The properties of oil and gas phases depend on pressures
and composition, so that the functional dependencies may
be written:

• The equilibrium K-values may be used to determine

component ratios: