Fuel 138 (2014) 193–199

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Fuel
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fuel

Comparison of correlations based on API gravity for predicting viscosity

of crude oils
Felipe Sánchez-Minero a,⇑, Gabriela Sánchez-Reyna b, Jorge Ancheyta b, Gustavo Marroquin b
a
Departamento de Ingeniería Química Petrolera, ESIQIE, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Zacatenco, México, D.F. 07738, Mexico
b
Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas Norte 152, México, D.F. 07730, Mexico

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

 Comparison of available correlations %AAD value as a function of API gravity crude oil used in the validation analysis [Beggs (M), Glaso (h),
for predicting viscosity of crude oils. Kartoatmodjo (s), Hossain (e), Egbogah (N), Elsharkawy (j), Naseri (d), Alomair (), and this work (+)].
 New correlation for viscosity
prediction is proposed.
 High accuracy of proposed correlation
for heavy crude oil.
 Two-coefficient correlation as a
function of API gravity and absolute
temperature.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Correlations for the prediction of dynamic viscosity of crude oils as a function of the absolute temperature
Received 24 January 2014 and API gravity are compared. Twelve crude oils with wide range of API gravity (12.4–43°API) are used for
Received in revised form 6 August 2014 comparison of correlations. It was identified the need of an accurate correlation for calculating viscosity
Accepted 7 August 2014
of heavy crude oils. Thus, a new correlation is proposed, which was validated using viscosity values dif-
Available online 24 August 2014
ferent to those used to derive it. Comparison of results using literature information and own set of data
indicated better predictability over other correlations previously reported. High accuracy was observed
Keywords:
with the developed correlation for crude oils with low API gravity (621.1°API), so that it resulted to be
Crude oil
Viscosity prediction
more accurate for calculating viscosity of heavy crude oils.
Correlation Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The viscosity is a property of great importance during petro-
leum characterization since its value defines the transportability
of crude oils through the pipelines. For instance, it is widely
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jfsanchezm@ipn.mx (F. Sánchez-Minero).
accepted that a crude oil can be transported only if its kinematic
viscosity is lower than 250 cSt at 100 °F [1]. API gravity is also used
as an indicative of crude oil transportability, but there is not a pre-
cise specification of its value. In other words, for a crude oil to be
transported it is mandatory a prior reduction of its viscosity.
Nowadays, because of the increasing production of heavy and
extra-heavy crude oils, their transportation from production facil-
ities to distribution terminals or refineries has become a critical

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2014.08.022
0016-2361/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
194 F. Sánchez-Minero et al. / Fuel 138 (2014) 193–199

Nomenclature

a coefficient of correlation lod dynamic viscosity of crude oil, cP

%AAD average absolute deviation n number of data points
API API gravity R2 coefficient of determination
b coefficient of correlation SD standard deviation
cP centipoise T temperature, K
cSt centistoke Tf temperature, °F
K Kelvin lexp experimental value of dynamic viscosity, cP
t kinematic viscosity of crude oil, cSt lcal predicted value of dynamic viscosity, cP

problem. For pipeline transportation, the most used technologies at 288.71 K and this value was used to calculate the API gravity.
are heating the crude oil pipeline or dilution with light crude oil For each test, 3 mL of sample were fed to the equipment.
[2–4]. However, these approaches are expensive. In addition, heat-
ing does not upgrade the properties of crude oil, and is not a viable
3. Results and discussion
method to transport over large distances. Dilution improves the
properties of heavy crude oil but at the expense of loss of diluent,
3.1. Description and analysis of correlations
making it necessary to find a cheap diluent near the production
wells. There are also other options, e.g. partial catalytic upgrading
The majority of correlations developed to predict the dynamic
[5,6], which requires higher investment costs. In any case, it is
viscosity of crude oil as a function of API gravity and temperature
indispensable to determine the viscosity of the crude oil to verify
are based on the logarithmic function. The most used correlations
if it accomplishes the desired specification for transportation.
have been proposed by Beal [7], Beggs and Robinson [9], Glaso [10],
Various standardized methods are available for experimental
Egbogah and Ng [11], Kartoatmodjo and Schmidt [15], Elsharkawy
determination of viscosity for different types of crude oils and
and Alikhan [17], Naseri et al. [18], Hossain et al. [19], Alomair et al.
petroleum products. The most used are ASTM D88, ASTM D445,
[20], and Petrosky and Farshad [21]. Table 1 presents these corre-
ASTM D2170, ASTM D7042, ASTM D7483 and ASTM E102. The
lations, the source of crude oil used in obtaining them, as well as
major differences among them are the type and required amount
the range of application in function of the API gravity. Some of
of sample, the experimental setup, the time for analysis, the
the equations exhibit similarities in the number of parameters
operating conditions of equipment, and the ranges of viscosity in
included (e.g. Egbogah and Elsharkawy) or in the mathematical
which the device can be used. In practice, it has been observed that
structure, such as Beggs and Robinson [9] and Egbogah [11]. More-
measuring the viscosity of crude oils with low API gravity is
over, Glaso [10] and Kartoatmodjo and Schmidt [15] coincide in
complicated due to their own nature and difficulty to handle. This
using the API gravity value raised to an exponent that depends
makes the analysis requires more time and greater amount of
on the temperature. However, the equations proposed by Kar-
sample to obtain reliable results.
toatmodjo and Schmidt [15], Hossain et al. [19], and Alomair
The viscosity of crude oil can also be predicted by means of
et al. [20] reach higher viscosity values, therefore are applicable
correlations. Several methods have been proposed to predict dead
for heavier crude oils.
oil viscosity (lod), saturated or bubble point viscosity (lob), and
Even though the authors of above correlations claim that accu-
under saturated oil viscosity (lo). Depending on the category, the
rate predictions can be obtained with their proposed equations, the
correlation uses parameters and properties such as API gravity,
correlation usually will not work for a crude oil with different API
temperature, pour point, pressure, bubble point pressure, gas/oil
gravity and temperature range from those that were used to
ratio, and molecular weight. According to this, two types of
develop it. In this sense, Fig. 1 illustrates the applicability interval
correlations for prediction of crude oil viscosity are reported in
for correlations included in Table 1. The equation proposed by Beal
the literature [7–21]: (1) those using conditions and bulk proper-
[7] is applicable for heavy crude oils with low API gravity (down to
ties such as temperature, pressure and specific gravity, and (2)
10°API) and consequently, with high viscosity (155 cP), however,
those using crude oil composition, normal boiling point, and pour
the correlations of Kartoatmodjo and Schmidt [15], Hossain et al.
point temperature. Additionally, viscosity can also be predicted
[19], and Alomair et al. [20] reach higher viscosity values (up to
by corresponding state and equation of state based methods.
586 cP, 451 cP, and 11360 cP, respectively). Other correlations as
All the authors reported high accuracy for viscosity prediction
Glaso [10], Elsharkawy and Alikhan [17], Naseri et al. [18], and Pet-
with their correlations, however, they were developed and tested
rosky and Farshad [21], cover relatively small viscosity and API
with a particular set of experimental data, and extrapolation to
gravity ranges.
other data may change the precision of predictions. Thus, the
aim of this work is to compare all the reported approaches and
to develop a new correlation to predict the dynamic viscosity for 3.2. Comparison of correlations
dead crude oils, by using experimental data of viscosity of crude
oils with API gravity ranging between 12.4° and 43°. The performance of described correlations was compared using
dynamic viscosity values of twelve crude oils with API gravity from
12.4 to 43°API (Table 2). The precision that presents each correla-
2. Experimental data tion was analyzed by means of the average absolute deviation
(%AAD), which is obtained using the following equation:
The dynamic viscosity and specific gravity of crude oils were 1X n
jlcal  lexp j
obtained using a SVM 3000 Stabinger viscometer according to %AAD ¼  100 ð1Þ
n i¼1 lexp
ASTM D7042 method. The dynamic viscosity for each crude oil
was measured at temperatures between 303.15 and 333.15 K at where n is the total number of experimental data, lexp the experi-
atmospheric pressure, whereas the specific gravity was obtained mental viscosity value, and lcal the predicted viscosity value.
 F. Sánchez-Minero et al. / Fuel 138 (2014) 193–199 195

Table 1
Correlations to predict the dynamic viscosity of crude oils.

Author Correlation API gravity Viscosity (cP) Source

h ih ia
Beal [7] lod ¼ 0:32 þ 1:810
7
360 10–52 0.8–155 US
4:53 T f þ200
API
a ¼ antilogð0:43 þ 8:33=APIÞ
Beggs and Robinson [9] lod ¼ 10x  1 16–58 NAa Unknown
x ¼ yðT f Þ1:163
y ¼ 10z
z ¼ 3:0324  0:02023 API
Glaso [10] lod ¼ ½3:141ð1010 ÞðT f Þ3:444 ½logðAPIÞa 20–48 0.6–39 North Sea
a ¼ 10:313½logðT f Þ  36:447
Egbogah and Ng [11] lod ¼ 10x  1 5–58 NAa Databank
y
x ¼ 10
y ¼ 2:06492  0:0179 API  0:70226log10 ðT f Þ
Kartoatmodjo and Schmidt [15] lod ¼ 16ð108 ÞT f2:8177 ½log ðAPIÞx 14–59 0.5–586 Databank
x ¼ 5:7526 logðT f Þ  26:9718
Elsharkawy and Alikhan [17] lod ¼ antilog10 ðxÞ  1 20–48 0.6–33.7 Middle East
x ¼ antilog10 ðyÞ
y ¼ 2:16924  0:02525 API  0:68875log10 ðT f Þ
Naseri et al. [18] lod ¼ antilog10 ðyÞ 17–44 0.75–54 Iran
y ¼ 11:2699  4:298log10 ðAPIÞ  2:052log10 ðT f Þ
Hossain et al. [19] lod ¼ 30:5149  2:7935lnðT f Þ  1:5080½lnðAPIÞ2 10–22.3 22–451 Databank

Alomair et al. [20] lod ¼ ð0:269024 API8:268047Þ

10ð0:71523 APIþ22:13766Þ T f 10–20 1.78–11360 Kuwait

x
Petrosky and Farshad [21] lod ¼ 2:3511  107 T 2:10255
f ½logðAPIÞ 25–46 0.72–10.2 US
x ¼ 4:59388 logðT f Þ  22:82792
a
Not available.

Fig. 2. %AAD value as a function of API gravity crude oil using different correlations
Fig. 1. Range of applicability of API gravity for several correlations used to predict [Beggs (M), Glaso (h), Kartoatmodjo (s), Hossain (e), Egbogah (N), Elsharkawy (j),
viscosity. Naseri (d), and Alomair ()].

Fig. 2 presents the %AAD value for each correlation as a function

of API gravity of crude oil. In general, the results showed that all the viscosity of heavy and extra-heavy crude oils. One of the rea-
correlations, including the Hossain et al. [19] and Alomair et al. sons for this low performance of the correlations is attributed to
[20], reached a low fit when the API gravity is lower than 20°, the range of crude oil API gravity used to derive them. It must be
which indicates that these correlations are not suitable to predict highlighted that various reports in the literature use indistinctly

Table 2
Dynamic viscosity of crude oils with different API gravity.

API gravity 12.4 14.7 15.9 18.6 20.9 24.6 26.6 28.7 30.2 33.2 37.6 43.0
Temperature (K) Viscosity (cP)
303.15 17609.0 3731.2 1481.4 437.7 154.7 49.7 24.5 17.7 11.7 7.21 3.58 1.88
308.15 10255.0 2359.6 985.4 312.7 116.0 36.7 20.1 14.1 9.91 6.21 3.16 1.71
313.15 6192.2 1538.8 674.1 227.4 87.9 29.3 16.7 11.8 8.61 5.43 2.82 1.55
318.15 3869.6 1031.5 473.7 169.8 68.3 25.3 14.0 10.2 7.46 4.78 2.54 1.41
323.15 2478.7 710.7 341.3 128.2 53.8 22.7 11.9 8.90 6.56 4.24 2.30 1.29
328.15 1626.1 503.0 251.4 98.9 43.1 19.4 10.3 7.94 5.81 3.79 2.09 1.19
333.15 1100.8 366.1 188.9 77.9 35.1 17.3 8.89 6.95 5.18 3.40 1.90 1.10
196 F. Sánchez-Minero et al. / Fuel 138 (2014) 193–199

a correlations without considering that it may not be applicable to
the particular case. Fig. 2 confirms this fact.
Then, for API gravity higher than 20°, which is from medium
and light crude oils, some correlations tended to improve their
accuracy. However, there was not a correlation that showed the
best fit for the entire studied region (12.4–43°API). Beggs and
Robinson [9], Egbogah and Ng [11] and Elsharkawy and Alikhan
[17] correlations presented a higher fit, although still poor; when
the API gravity of the crude oil is lower than 28.7°. In contrast, if
the API gravity of the crude oil is higher than 28.7°, Glaso [10]
and Kartoatmodjo and Schmidt [15] correlations reached a greater
fit. Finally, the correlation of Naseri et al. [18] presented an
increase in their accuracy when it was used for light crude oils,
whereas the correlations proposed by Beal [7] and Petrosky and
Farshad [21] were excluded from further analysis because they
exhibited quite high deviations to predict the dynamic viscosity
with different crude oils.
The above results indicate that most of the available correla-
tions fail in predicting the viscosity of heavy oils. Only a couple
of them succeed in the calculation of viscosity of crude oils with
API gravity higher than 26.6°. The same observation has been
recently derived when examining mixing rules for determination
of viscosity of petroleum blends, that is, they are not capable to
predict viscosity of heavy oil blends [4]. There is then a need to
establish new correlations that achieve more accurate prediction
of viscosity for heavy and extra-heavy crude oils.

3.3. Development of correlation

Fig. 3 presents the values of dynamic viscosity at 303.15 K as a

function of API gravity of the crude oils used in the comparison of
correlations. In general, it is observed an exponential increase of
viscosity when API gravity of crude oil is low. Therefore, it is antic-
ipated that the correlation must include an exponential function
for better estimation of viscosity of heavy and extra-heavy crude
Fig. 3. Dynamic viscosity as function of the API gravity of crude oil.
oils.
One of the first correlations that include an exponential func-
tion to predict the viscosity was proposed by Eyring [22], similarly
to Arrhenius equation. Then, Amin et al. [23] and Beg et al. [24]
suggested comparable correlations for the prediction of kinematic
viscosity from liquid petroleum fractions, as follow:

Table 3
Dynamic viscosity of crude oils used for validation of the proposed correlation.

API gravity 13.3 15.5 21.1 29.8 38.3 18.1 [25]

Temperature (K) Viscosity (cP)
295.75 2152.0
303.15 8076.2 2292.3 130.2 13.1 3.10
308.15 4913.7 1475.9 99.6 11.5 2.87
313.15 3153.4 969.9 77.4 8.69 2.77
318.15 2165.7 644.4 62.8 7.81 2.64
323.15 1262.0 446.5 47.4 6.80 2.52
323.65 324.8
328.15 833.5 319.1 38.0 5.83 2.41
333.15 568.1 233.9 30.8 5.31 2.34
338.55 154.0

Fig. 5. %AAD value as a function of API gravity crude oil used in the validation
analysis [Beggs (M), Glaso (h), Kartoatmodjo (s), Hossain (e), Egbogah (N),
Fig. 4. (a and b) Coefficients of Eq. (4) as a function of API gravity crude oil. Elsharkawy (j), Naseri (d), Alomair (), and this work (+)].
 F. Sánchez-Minero et al. / Fuel 138 (2014) 193–199 197

t ¼ a expðb=TÞ ð2Þ lod ¼ a expðb=T 2 Þ ð3Þ

More recently, Barrufet and Setiadarma [25] used the following Following this suggestion, the temperature raised to the power
equation for the dynamic viscosity prediction of a heavy crude oil. of three was explored here to examine how the viscosity predic-
Differently to previous approaches, the temperature was raised to tions may improve.
the power of two. This change was reported to improve the predic-
tion of viscosity. lod ¼ a expðb=T 3 Þ ð4Þ

Fig. 6. Parity plots of experimental vs. calculated viscosity values for crude oils with (a) 13.3°API; (b) 15.5°API; (c) 21.1°API; (d) 29.8°API and (e) 38.3°API. [Glaso (h),
Kartoatmodjo (s), Hossain (e), Elsharkawy (j), Alomair (), and this work (+)].

Table 4
%AAD and SD values that present the different crude oils used in the validation analysis.

API gravity Glaso Kartoatmodjo Elsharkawy Hossain Alomair This work

%AAD SD %AAD SD %AAD SD %AAD SD %AAD SD %AAD SD
13.3 75.6 82.3 75.3 82.3 77.3 83.7 49.1 53.7 36.5 44.9 24.9 27.7
15.5 70.0 76.3 69.8 76.3 67.3 72.9 32.8 36.1 37.1 45.1 10.1 11.9
21.1 38.3 42.3 37.8 41.9 21.8 24.0 11.1 13.6 55.1 59.6 1.5 2.3
29.8 8.9 10.6 6.8 8.0 18.1 20.0 73.7 79.9 87.8 94.9 8.3 9.8
38.3 12.7 15.5 15.7 19.2 20.9 27.5 96.6 104.4 97.3 105.1 12.8 16.3
198 F. Sánchez-Minero et al. / Fuel 138 (2014) 193–199
where lod is the dynamic viscosity in cP, T is the absolute temper-
ature in Kelvin and, a and b are coefficients, which depend on API
gravity.
Then, the experimental viscosity values of the crude oils men-
tioned before were used to obtain coefficients a and b from Eq.
(4) for each crude oil. Excellent fit (R2 > 0.985) for both coefficients
was achieved as can be observed in Fig. 4. The resulting depen-
dence of a and b with API gravity was:
a ¼ 3:9  105 API3  4:0  103 API2 þ 0:1226 API  0:7626
b ¼ 9:1638  109 API1:3257
3.4. Validation of correlations
3.4.1. Own experimental viscosities
A completely different database of viscosity values was used to
examine the performance of the reported correlations as well as
that proposed in this work. Five crude oils were used for such a
purpose, which properties are reported in Table 3. The %AAD values
for each correlation are showed in Fig. 5. The results indicate that
the proposed correlation reaches the highest precision when the
API gravity of the crude oil is lower than 21.1°, while for API gravity
higher than 21.1°, it shows a slightly lower accuracy than other
correlations such as Glaso [10] and Kartoatmodjo and Schmidt
[15]. Thus, the correlation proposed in this work maintains certain
stability in the range of 12.4–43°API, whereas other correlations
used for heavy crude oils as Hossain et al. [19] and Alomair et al.
[20] showed deviation in the viscosity predictions when the API
gravity of the crude oil is higher than 21°. Thus, it was confirmed
that including an exponential function with temperature raised
to the power of three improves the prediction of viscosity of low
API gravity hydrocarbons; therefore the proposed correlation is
useful to predict the viscosity of heavy crude oils.
Parity plots, only for those correlations showing the smaller
%AAD, are depicted in Fig. 6 to examine the predictions for all
the variety of crude oils used in the validation (i.e. from the heavy
to the lighter types). For the heavy crude oils (13.3, 15.5, and
21.1°API), the correlations proposed by Glaso [10], Kartoatmodjo
and Schmidt [15], Elsharkawy and Alikhan [17], Hossain et al.
[19] and Alomair et al. [20], showed lower values of viscosity than
the experimental ones, while the estimations using the proposed
correlation exhibited a small over-estimation (Fig. 6a–c). For the
medium crude oil (29.8°API), the best estimations were obtained
using the Glaso [10], Kartoatmodjo and Schmidt [15] and this work
correlation (Fig. 6d). Finally, the light crude oil (38.3°API) showed
over-estimation by Elsharkawy and Alikhan [17], while Glaso
[10], Kartoatmodjo and Schmidt [15] and this work tended to
under-estimate the experimental values (Fig. 6e). The Hossain
et al. [19] and Alomair et al. [20] correlations showed high devia-
tions and were not included.
In the following stage of the analysis, the standard deviation
(SD) for each correlation was obtained using Eq. (7).
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u P h  i2
u n lcal lexp 
t i¼1  l   100
exp
SD ¼
n1
The %AAD and SD values are presented in Table 4. Results con-
firmed that the correlation developed in this work is suitable to
predict the viscosity of heavy crude oils (<21.1°API) since it exhib-
its the lowest SD values. Then, for crude oils with API gravity
higher than 21.1°, the correlation developed in this work reaches
a similar accuracy than those correlations with higher fit as Glaso
[10] and Kartoatmodjo and Schmidt [15].
3.4.2. Literature viscosity data
To confirm the above results, the information reported by
Barrufet and Setiadarma [25] for a heavy crude oil at different
temperatures (295.7–338.58 K) was used to estimate the viscosity
using all correlations; further, the %AAD values were obtained.
The experimental values of viscosity are reported in the last
column of Table 3. The lowest %AAD values were obtained for
Beggs and Robinson [9], Hossain et al. [19], and the proposed
correlation (65.5, 62.7, and 62.3, respectively). It is important to
ð5Þ mention that there is limited reliable information of crude oil
viscosity values in literature. Nevertheless, it can be observed that
the correlation developed in this work can be applied to predict the
ð6Þ
viscosity of heavy crude oils, more precisely when the API gravity
is lower than 21.1°.
4. Conclusions
Correlations reported in the literature to predict the viscosities
of crude oils were tested and compared using own experimental
and literature data. It was found that all correlations tend to fail
as the viscosity values increases, i.e. for heavy oil samples. Then,
a correlation for calculating the viscosity of crude oils has been
developed which involves two coefficients that are function of
API gravity. The developed correlation presents a good perfor-
mance in the range of API gravity evaluated (12.4–43.0°). However,
its higher precision was observed for API gravity lower than 21.1°,
even higher than other correlations reported in literature. There-
fore, this correlation is suitable to predict the viscosity of heavy
crude oils.
Acknowledgments
Authors acknowledge the financial support from Project IPN-
SIP-20121679 and the technical support of the Ing. Felix Rincon-
Garcia.
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