UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS

PAB3053
Reservoir Modeling and Simulation
Semester: MAY2015

Compositional Simulation
Petroleum Engineering Department
Berihun M. Negash

CHAPTER OUTCOMES
At the end of this session students should
be able to
Understand the concept of compositional
simulation
Discover Application areas of Compositional
simulation.
Apply the Governing Equations for
Compositional Simulation.

Exercise
Depict the five reservoir fluid types on a multicomponent phase
diagram.
Describe black oil and compositional models by making use of
a simple schematic diagram.
Briefly explain the application areas of a compositional model.
Why compositional model is not used for all types of problems.

Why simulate?

PVT data

Black Oil
Volatile oil
Retrograde gas
Wet gas
Dry gas

Why analyze PVT data?

Why we need PVT
properties of fluids?
Where in the
production stage do
we need PVT
properties of the
hydrocarbon fluids?

Answer!!!
we need to know how the fluids behave

within the reservoir,

within the wells,
at surface conditions,
in the network and at the refinery.

The fluid properties need to be known over a wide

range of temperatures and pressures.
When gas is injected into the reservoir, we also need to
know how the properties of the original reservoir fluid
will change as the composition changes.

We also need to predict PVT fluid

properties
The composition of well stream as a function of time
Completion design, which depends on the properties of the
wellbore liquids
Whether to inject or re-inject gas, and if so
The detailed specification of the injected gas - how much C3, 4, 5s to
leave in
separator configuration and stage for injection gas
Miscibility effects that may result from the injected gas

The amounts and composition of liquids left behind and their

physical properties: density, surface tension, viscosity.
Separator/NGL Plant Specifications
H2S and N2 concentration in produced gas
Product values vs. time

Black Oil and Compositional

Fluid Models
Black Oil Model
Oil and Gas phases are represented by two components:
one component called oil and another component
called gas.

Compositional Model
Compositional Model
Oil and Gas phases are represented by multicomponent
mixtures.

Uses of Compositional Simulation

Volatile oil (oAPI changes, oil vaporizes)
Miscible EOR (CO2, LPG)
Condensate (cycling, oil flows)
Gas cycling (injection of dry gas)
Injecting new fluid (N2)
Cases where gas injection/re-injection into an oil produces a
large compositional changes
Surface facilities department needs detailed compositions
of the production stream.

Phase Diagram

Contd
If the reservoir temperature and pressure are close to
the critical point of the reservoir fluid, or if they get
close to each other during the simulation
Even if we are not injecting gas into a reservoir, we
may still need to consider compositional simulation if
there are:
Large compositional variations with depth
Large temperature variation with depth
Large compositional variation in the x-y direction

When to use Black Oil Simulation!

If the reservoir stays as a single-phase oil or a single-phase gas
during its entire history, away from the critical point, then it
can in general be can be modeled with a black-oil model.
If the reservoir is two-phase at any time during the
simulation then there will be some compositional effects. In
many cases however these can be approximated by varying
gas/oil and oil/gas ratios to mimic small compositional
changes.
Condensate dropout or gas liberation should be a small part
of the hydrocarbon in place.
Remaining hydrocarbon composition should not change
significantly when gas is liberated or condensate drops out

Advantages of Compositional Simulation

Compositional simulators can account for the effects of
composition on:
Changes in phase behavior
Multi-contact miscibility
Immiscible or near-miscible displacement behavior in
compositionally dependent mechanisms such as
vaporization, condensation, and oil swelling
Composition-dependent phase properties such as
viscosity and density on miscible sweep-out
Interfacial Tension (IFT) especially the effect of IFT
on residual oil saturation.

Difficulties with Compositional

Simulation
There are a number of issues that may need to be
considered when running any compositional
simulator.
Calculating phase composition around the critical point can
be difficult.
Modeling viscous fingering in large grid blocks is not easy.
Numerical dispersion is an issue in both black-oil and
compositional simulation, but can have a greater effect in
compositional.
Larger computational time

Summary
Differences Between black Oil and Compositional Simulations
Black Oil Simulation
Components: Oil and gas Phase:
Oil and gas
HC composition remains constant
All fluid properties are assumed
to be determined by oil pressure
and bubble point pressure only
mass transfer between the two
phases is normally described by
the solution gas-oil ratio term, Rso

Compositional Simulation

Components: HCs (C1, C2,

)Non HCs (CO2, H2S,)
Phases: Oil and gas
HC composition varies as the
reservoir is produced
All fluid properties are assumed
to be determined by oil pressure,
bubble point pressure and
Composition
Mass transfer is dealt with Flash
Calculation (either using KValues or EOS)

The General equation

For a two phase Oil/gas System
Black Oil

+ =
+

Compositional

+ =
+

PVT prediction methods

The methods used for PVT prediction are as follows:
1) K-value, pk (convergence pressure) method.(This
method is faster and can be matched with lab data and
EOS , but it needs correction for the density of oil and the
density of gas)
2) Equation of State method (EOS).( It matches more
accurate with the lab data and we can get the density of
oil and gas)
a) Peng-Robinson
b) Redlich-Kwong

K-Value Method
When the vapor and liquid phases are in
equilibrium, the molecules of each component are
condensing and vaporizing at the same rate.
vapor

= 1.0 = mole fraction of component in vapor phase

= 1.0 = mole fraction of component in liquid phase
= 1.0 = total mole fraction of component

 Consider one mole of a fluid of composition z1, z2...

zN that splits at some pressure and temperature (P,
T) into L moles of liquid of composition x1, x2...xN
and V moles of vapor composition y1, y2... yN.
Then
+ =1

+ =
Substituting for L and using the definition of

1+ 1

and

1+ 1

From which

=
=1

=1

1
1 + 1

=0

The equation is called Rachford-Rice equation

 K-values tend to get closer to 1 as pressure and temperature increases.

QUIZ: what does a K-value of 1 indicate??????

Example
Consider a fluid made up of only three components,
C1, C3 and C10. The composition of the fluid is
Z1 = 0.8 so we have 80% C1
Z2 = 0.1 so we have 10% C3
Z3 = 0.1 so we have 10% C10
K1 =11, K2 = 1, K3 = 0.1
what is the value of V?
what is the value of L?
What is the composition of the oil and of the gas?

EOS Methods
Van der waals:

The constants a and b have positive values and are characteristic of the
individual gas.
The van der Waals equation of state approaches the ideal gas law
PV=nRT as the values of these constants approach zero.
The constant a provides a correction for the intermolecular forces.
Constant b is a correction for finite molecular size and its value is the
volume of one mole of the atoms or molecules.

EOS Methods
Redlich Kwong: P =
Where

0.4272 2
0.08664
a=
and b =

= 1 + 0.48508 + 1.55171 0.15613

is the acentric factor and

= =

= log 1: = 0.7

0.5

EOS methods

contd

Peng Robinson
Where

=
2
+ 2 2

0.4572352 2
a=
,

0.077796
b=

= 1 + 1 0.5

= 0.37464 + 1.54226 0.269922

Using the Van der Waals EOS to calculate

molar volume and compressibility
A shallow reservoir in Malaysia is at a temperature of 100F and
a pressure of 300 psia (2.0 MPa). The fluid is pure methane.
1. Calculate the molar volume of methane at reservoir
conditions using the Van der Waals EOS. What is the
compressibility factor? You will need to iterate a few times
until convergence to find the solution.
2. Calculate the specific volume of methane at reservoir
conditions using the ideal gas equation. What is the
compressibility factor?

Using the PengRobinson EOS to

model the phase behavior
Propane has the following properties: a critical
temperature of 370 K; a critical pressure of 42.5 bars;
and an acentric factor of 0.152. The gas constant is 83.1
cm3bar/mol/K. Calculate the attraction and co-volume
parameters, a and b and the temperature
dependence parameter at a temperature of 40C.
Tc=370k
Pc=42.5*10^5Pa
=0.152

Summary
Uses of Black Oil and Compositional Simulation

Black Oil

Compositional

Primary depletion
Water flooding
Immiscible gas injection
Imbibition

Miscible Gas injection

CO2 flooding).
Gas condensate reservoir
depletion (Gas cycling,
oil flows).
The modeling of gas
injection into near critical
reservoirs
Miscible flooding by
CO2or enriched gas
injection
Injecting new fluid (N2)

The Governing Equations

We define
Ckg = mass fraction of component k present in the gas
phase and
Cko = mass fraction of component k present in the oil
phase.
Thus, we have the conditions that for a system of Nc
components:

= 1
=1

= 1
=1

Contd
Then, a mass balance of component k may be written (in
one dimension, for simplicity):

+ =
+

Darcy's equations for each flowing phase are identical to

the Black Oil equations:

where = , = and + =1

 Thus, we may write flow equations for Nc components as:

+
=
+

= 1, 2, 3,

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:

The Black Oil model may be considered to be a

pseudo-compositional model with two components.
Again neglecting water
component 1 is gas
component 2 is oil

Assignment
Use the definitions in the previous slide and show
that the flow equations for the black oil simulation
model are the same as a pseudo compositional
model.