Reservoir Engineering I

Barham S. Mahmood
E-mail: barham.sabir@koyauniversity.org
Petroleum Engineering Department
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Gas Properties
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• Introduction
• Ideal gas
• The density of an ideal gas
• Standard condition
• Apparent molecular weight
• Specific gravity of a gas
• Behavior Of Real Gases
• compressibility factor for natural gases (z)
• Gas formation volume factor (Bg)
• Coefficient of isothermal compressibility of gases (cg)
• Viscosity of gases
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• Derive an equation to calculate the density of an ideal

gas.

• Present an equation and calculate the apparent molecular

weight of a mixture.

• Define and calculate the specific gravity of a gas.

• Present the equation of state, EOS, for a ‘real gas’ and

explain what ‘Z’ is, PV=ZnRT.
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• Define the pseudocritical pressure and psuedocritical

temperature and be able to use them to determine the ‘Z’
value for a gas mixture.

• Define the gas formation volume factor and derive an

equation fore it using the EOS.

• Calculate the viscosity of a gas of a specific composition

given perquisite equations and figures
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• A gas is a homogenous fluid that has no definite volume but fills

completely the vessel in which it is placed

• Generally, the natural gas is a mixture of hydrocarbon and

nonhydrocarbon gases.

• The hydrocarbon gases normally found in a natural gas are methane,

ethane, propane, butanes, pentanes, and small amounts of hexanes
and heavier. The nonhydrocarbon gases, that is, impurities, include
carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and nitrogen.

• Knowledge of pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) relationships and

other physical and chemical properties of gases are essential for solving
problems in natural gas reservoir engineering. The properties of interest
include:
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• Apparent molecular weight, AMW.

• Specific gravity, g.

• Compressibility factor, Z.

• Gas density, g.

• Isothermal gas compressibility coefficient, cg.

• Gas formation volume factor, Bg.

• Gas expansion factor, Eg.

• Viscosity, μg
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An ideal gas is one where the following assumptions

hold:
• Volume of gas molecules is negligible compare with gas volume.

• There are no attractive or repulsive forces between molecules or

between molecules and container walls.

• There is no internal energy loss when molecules collide.

Out of these assumptions come the following equations

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At constant temperature the pressure of a given weight of a gas is

inversely proportional to the volume of a gas.

i.e.
1
V∝ or PV=constant, T is constant
P

Where:

P = pressure, V = volume, T = temperature.

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At constant pressure, the volume of a given weight of gas varies directly

with the temperature:

V
V∝T or =constant, P is constant
T

The pressure and temperature in both laws are in absolute units.

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Avogadro’s Law can be stated as:

At the same P and T equal volumes of gas contain the same number of

molecules

Avogadro’s Number:
Na = 2. 73X10 26 molecules / lb mol
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• One molecular weight (in lbs) of any ideal gas at 60˚F and 14.7 psia

occupies a volume of 379.4 cu ft.

• One mole of a material is a quantity of that material whose mass in the

unit system selected is numerically equal to the molecular weight.

eg. One lb mole of methane CH4 = 16 lb

One kg mole of methane CH4 = 16kg

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By combining the above laws an equation of state relating pressure,

temperature and volume of a gas is obtained.

PV
= constant
T

R is the constant when the quantity of gas is equal to one mole

It is termed the Universal Gas Constant and has different values

depending on the unit system used, so that;

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Table 1 Values of R for different unit systems

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For n moles the equation becomes:

To find the volume occupied by a quantity of gas when the conditions of

temperature and pressure are changed from state 1 to state 2 we note

that:
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Example 1:
A gas cylinder contains methane at 1000 psia and 70°F. If the cylinder has
a volume of 3 cu.ft assuming methane is an ideal gas calculate the mass
of methane in the cylinder.

Solution:
PV = nRT
n = m/Mwt
where n = number of moles
m = mass
M = molecular weight
m = PMV/RT Mass of methane, m = 8.46 lb
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Since density is defined as the weight per unit volume, the ideal gas law
can be used to calculate densities.

m
PV = nRT n=
MW

m m
∴ PV= RT ρg =
MW v

m P MW
=
v RT

P MW
∴ ρg =
RT
where ρg is gas density
MW is a molecular weight
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Example 2:
Calculate the density of the gas in the cylinder in example 1

Solution:
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• Oil and gas at reservoir conditions clearly occur under a whole range of

temperatures and pressures. It is common practice to relate volumes to

conditions at surface, ie 14.7 psia and 60˚F.

i.e.

sc - standard conditions res - reservoir conditions

• This relationship assumes that reservoir properties behave as ideal.

This is NOT the case as will be discussed later.
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Example 3:
Assuming methane is at the conditions of example 1, calculate the volume
the gas would occupy at standard conditions.

Solution:
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A mixture does not have a molecular weight although it behaves as

though it had a molecular weight. This is called the apparent molecular

weight. AMW.

If yj represents the mole fraction of the jth component:

AMW for air = 28.97, a value of 29.0 is usually sufficiently accurate.

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Example 4:
A gas is made up of the following components; 25lb of methane, 3 lb of
ethane and 1.5 lb of propane. What is the apparent molecular weight of
the mixture?
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Solution:

Gas A B C D E
components weight Mol weight Ib moles Mole fraction AMW

Methane 25 16.04 1.559 0.921 14.77

Ethane 3 30.07 0.100 0.059 1.77
Propane 1.5 44.09 0.034 0.020 0.89
Totals 29.05 1 17.43

Column B from table

Column C = n = Weight/ M.Weight
Column D = σ column C/No. of mole of each component
Column E = B x D
apparent molecular weight = 17.43
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The specific gravity of a gas, g is the ratio of the density of the gas

relative to that of dry air at the same conditions.

Assuming that the gases and air are ideal.

Mg = AMW of mixture, Mair = AMW of air.

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Example 5:
What is the gas gravity of the gas in example 4 ?

Solution:
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• In reality, however, particularly at high pressures and low temperatures

the volume of the molecules are no longer negligible and attractive
forces on the molecules are significant

• The ideal gas law, therefore, is not too applicable to light hydrocarbons
and their associated fluids and it is necessary to use a more refined
equation

There are two general methods of correcting the ideal gas

law equation:

1) By using a correction factor in the equation PV = nRT

2) By using another equation-of-state
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• The correction factor ‘z’ which is a function of the gas composition,

pressure and temperature is used to modify the ideal gas law to:

PV = znRT

• where the factor ‘z’ is known as the compressibility factor and the
equation is known as the compressibility equation-of-state or the
compressibility equation

• The compressibility factor is not a constant but varies with changing as

composition, temperature and pressure and must be determined
experimentally
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Figure 1 Typical plot of the compressibility factor as a function of pressure

at constant temperature.
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“All fluids when compared at the same reduced temperature (Tr) and
reduced pressure (Pr), have approximately the same compressibility
factor, and all deviate from ideal gas behavior to about the same
degree”

• Where, Tc and Pc are the pure component critical temperature and

pressure

• The compressibility factor ‘z’ follows this law. It is usually presented

vs Tr and Pr

• The Principle of Corresponding states (POC) originated with

single component fluids.
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• Although in many cases pure gases follow the Law of Corresponding

States, the gases associated with hydrocarbon reservoirs do not.

• The Law has however been used to apply to mixtures by defining

parameters called pseudo critical temperature and pseudocritical
pressure .

• For mixtures a pseudocritical temperature and pressure, Tpc and Ppc

is used such that:

• where y is the mole fraction of component j and Tcj and Pcj are the
critical temperature and pressure of component j.
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• It should be emphasized that these pseudo critical temperature and

pseudocritical pressures are not the same as the real critical
temperature and pressure.

• By definition the pseudo values must lie between the extreme critical
values of the pure components whereas the actual critical values for
mixtures can be outside these limits, we will discuss this in the Phase
Behaviour chapter.
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Example 6:
Calculate the pseudo critical temperature and pseudocritical pressure of

the mixture in example 4?

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Solution:

Pseudocritical pressure = 668.4 psia

Pseudocritical temperature = 362 oR

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For mixtures the compressibility factor (z) has been generated

with respect to natural gases, where ‘z’ is plotted as a function
of pseudo reduced temperature, Tpr and pseudo reduced
pressure Ppr where
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Example 7:
For the gas of example 4 determine the compressibility factor at a
temperature of 150°F and a pressure of 3500 psia
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Solution:
Ppr = P/Ppc, Tpr = T/Tpc

From example 6 Ppc = 668 psia, Tpc = 362.6°R

P = 3500 psia, and T = 150°C ie. 610°R

Ppr = 5.24, and Tpr = 1.68

From standing Katz chart, figure 2

Compressibility factor, z = 0.88

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Z= 0.88
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• The pseudocritical properties of gases can also be estimated from the

gas gravity using the correlation presented in figure below
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Example 8
For the gravity gas of example 5 (gas gravity = 0.6), Calculate the

pseudo critical temperature and pseudocritical pressure ?

Solution:
From figure

Ppc = 670 psia, Tpc = 359°R

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• As indicated in section 1.6 for ideal gases it is convenient to describe

the quantity of gas to a common basis and this is termed the standard
conditions, giving rise to the standard cubic foot and the standard
cubic meter.

• Throughout the industry gas volumes are measured at a standard

temperature of 60˚F (15.6˚C) and at a pressure of 14.7 psia (one
atmosphere)

• These conditions are referred to as standard temperature and

pressure STP
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Example 9:
Express the quantity of 1 lb mole of a gas as standard cubic feet.

Solution:
Equation of state PV = RT for 1 mole

R = 10.732 psia. cu.ft/lb.mole °R

T = 60+460 = 520 °R,

P = 14.65 psia

or V for 1 lb.mole = RT/P = 380.9 scf/lb.mole.

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Example 10:
Express the mass of gas in example 4 as standard cubic feet

Solution:
Total mass of gas = 29.5 lb.

Apparent mol.wgt of gas exercise 4 = 17.43 lb./lb.mole

lb.moles of gas = 1.6924

Standard cubic feet of gas = 380.9 x 1.6924 = 644.68 scf

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• The petroleum industry expresses its reservoir quantities at a common

basis of surface conditions which for gases is standard cubic volumes.

• To convert reservoir volumes to surface volumes the industry uses

formation volume factors. For gases we have Bg.

• the gas formation volume factor, is the ratio of the volume occupied
at reservoir temperature and pressure by a certain weight of gas to the
volume occupied by the same weight of gas at standard conditions
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Figure 4 Gas Formation Volume Factor, Bg

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• The gas formation volume factor can be obtained from PVT

measurements on a gas sample or it may be calculated from the
equations-of-state discussed previously

• One definition of the gas formation volume factor is:

it is the volume in barrels that one standard cubic foot of gas will
occupy as free gas in the reservoir at the prevailing reservoir pressure
and temperature

• Depending on the definition the units will change and the units will be;
rb free gas/scf gas or rm3 free gas/scm gas
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For example Bg for a reservoir at condition 2 is;

‘sc’ refers to standard conditions. z at standard conditions is taken as 1.0

• The reciprocal of Bg is often used to calculate volumes at surface so as

to reduce the possibility of misplacing the decimal point associated with
the values of Bg being less than 0.01, ie:

E is sometimes referred to as the

expansion factor.
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• Usually the units of Bg are barrels of gas at reservoir conditions per

standard cubic foot of gas, ie bbl/SCF or cubic metres per standard
cubic meter.

R and sc are reservoir and standard conditions respectively.

T and P at reservoir conditions:

z = 1 for standard conditions

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Since Tsc = 520˚R, Psc = 14.7 psia for most cases

Or
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Example 11:
Calculate the gas formation factor for a gas with the composition of
example 4 existing at the reservoir conditions given in example 7.

Solution:

T = 150 oF ie 610 oR and P = 3500 psia

Compressibility factor at these conditions from example 7 = 0.88

Bg using equation above = 0.0008 res bbl/scf

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Example 12:
A reservoir exists at a temperature of 150oF (as for example 7) suitable
for storing gas. It has an areal size of 5 miles by 2 miles and is 200ft
thick. The average porosity is 20% and there is no water present. How
much gas of the composition of example 4 can be stored at a pressure
3500 psia. ? (1 mile=5280 ft.)
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Solution:

Volume of reservoir pore space = 5x2 x (5280)2 x 200 x 0.2

Volume of reservoir pore space = 11,151,360,000 cu. ft.

11,151,360,000 cu. ft.

volume in bbls= = 1,985,994,657 bbls
cu. ft.
5.615
bbls
Bg , example 11 =0.00077299 res. bbls/SCF

Volume of gas =2.56923x 1012 scf

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The compressibility factor, z, must not be confused with the compressibility

which is defined as the change in volume per unit volume for a unit change
in pressure, or

Vm is the specific volume or

volume per mole.

cg is not the same as z, the compressibility factor

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For real gases:

Eq. (1)

Differentiating this equation with respect to pressure at constant

temperature T, gives

Eq. (2)
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Substituting equation (2) into equation (1) produces the following

generalized relationship:

dz/dP can be obtained from the slope of the z vs P

curve.
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For an ideal gas:

For an ideal gas, Z = 1 and (∂Z/∂p)T = 0; therefore,
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• Viscosity is a measure of the resistance to flow. It is given in units of

centipoise.

• A centipoise is a gm/100 sec.cm.

• The viscosity term is called dynamic viscosity whereas kinematic
viscosity is the dynamic viscosity divided by the density.

• Kinematic viscosity has units of cm2/100 sec and the term is called
centistoke.
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• Gas viscosity reduces as the pressure is decreased.

• At low pressures an increase in temperature increases gas viscosity

• whereas at high pressures gas viscosity decreases as the

temperature increases. Figure 5 gives the values for pure component
ethane.
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The viscosity of gases at low pressures can be obtained from correlations

presented by different workers.
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Figure 6 and Figure 7 give the viscosities of individual components and paraffin
hydrocarbons at one atmosphere.

For systems greater than 1 atmos the viscosities can be obtained from the
literature.
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Another way is by calculating the reduced temperature and reduced pressure and
use the chart developed by Carr-Kobayashi and Burrows which gives a ratio of µ
at reservoir conditions. This is given in Figure 8 in terms of pseudo reduced
conditions.
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Another formula that is used for mixtures is:

where:
y = mole fraction of jth component
M = molecular weight of component
j = the viscosity of jth component
n = number of components
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Example 13:
Calculate the viscosity of the gas mixture in example 4 at 200°F and a
pressure of one atmosphere.

Solution:
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Example 14:
Use the gas gravity method to calculate the viscosity of the gas in example
4 if you know Ppr = 5.24, and Tpr = 1.68

Solution:

γg =AMW/29 Temperature = 150°F

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Mol weight air = 29.000

AMW of gas = 17.431

µA = 0.0121
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Ppr = 5.24

Tpr = 1.68

from figure 8
μ
μA =1.7

μ
µg = μ x µA = 0.0121 x 1.7 = 0.0206 cp
A
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Any questions??