Natural gas properties

 Gas Gravity
 Real Gas Law
 Correlations and Useful Calculations for Natural
Gases
 Gas Compressibility Factor Correction for
Nonhydrocarbon Gases
 Gas Viscosity
 Gas Formation Volume Factor
 Gas Isothermal Compressibility
 Introduction

Natural gas reservoirs produce hydrocarbons that exist primarily in the gaseous
phase at reservoir conditions.

To predict the gas production rate from these reservoirs, there is a need to review
some of the fundamental properties of hydrocarbon gases. This is particularly
important (more so than in the case of oil reservoirs) because certain physical
properties of gases and gas mixtures vary significantly with pressure,
temperature, and gas composition.

Following is a brief review of gas gravity, the real gas law, gas compressibility, the
impact of nonhydrocarbon gases, gas viscosity, and gas isothermal
compressibility.
 Gas Gravity
Gas gravity, as used in natural gas production and reservoir engineering, is the
ratio of the molecular weight of a natural gas mixture to that of air, itself a mixture
of gases.

The molecular weight of air is usually taken as equal to 28.97 (approximately

79% nitrogen and 21% oxygen). Therefore the gas gravity, symbolized by
is
Molecular weights and Critical
properties of Pure components of NG
Homework #1
Calculation of the Gravity of a NG
 Real Gas Law

The behavior of natural gas mixtures can be approximated by the real

gas law

where Z is the compressibility factor, also called the gas deviation factor in the
petroleum engineering literature. The universal gas constant, R, is equal to 10.73
psi ft3/lb-mol-°R.

The gas compressibility factor for mixtures of hydrocarbon gases can be obtained
from Standing and Katz, 1942. This well-known graph was constructed for
hydrocarbon gas mixtures.
 Real Gas Law
To use Standing and Katz graph it is necessary to calculate the
pseudoreduced properties (pressure and temperature) of the mixture.
These properties are simply

and
 Real Gas
Law
The pseudocritical temperature and
pressure are not the actual critical
temperature and pressure of the
mixture but represent the values that
must be used for the purpose of
comparing corresponding states of
different gases on the z-factor chart.
It has been found to approximate the
convergence of the lines of constant
volume on a pressure/temperature
diagram.

The gas deviation factor for natural gases.

(From Standing and Katz, 1942.)
 Real Gas Law
Several researchers have developed analytical equations to reproduce the
Standing and Katz Z-factor charts. Comparative studies have shown that the
Dranchuk and Abou-Kassem (1975) correlation is accurate to better than 1%
for a wide range of temperatures and pressures.

This correlation, as presented by McCain (1990), is:

Real Gas Law (continued)
Homework #2
Use of the Real Gas Law to Calculate the Volume
of a Gas Mixture at Reservoir Conditions
 Correlations and Useful Calculations for NG
Gas Compressibility Factor Correction for Nonhydrocarbon
Gases

Wichert and Aziz (1972) have presented a correlation that allows the use
of the Standing-Katz graph in the presence of nonhydrocarbon gases. In
this case corrected pseudocritical values are

and

that can also be obtained graphically from Figure 4-3.

Figure 4-3 Pseudocritical
temperature adjustment
factor, e3. (From Wichert and
Aziz, 1972.)
Homework #3
Calculation of the Gas Compressibility Factor of a
Sour Gas
Homework #3
Calculation of the Gas Compressibility Factor of a
Sour Gas
 Gas Viscosity
Gas viscosity correlations have been presented by a number of authors.

A widely used correlation for gas viscosity that gives results comparable to
those in the following Figures 4-4 and 4-5 is that of Lee, Gonzales, and
Eakin (1966):

where
Figure 4-4 Viscosity of natural gases at 1 atm. (From Carr et al., 1954.)
Figure 4-5 Viscosity ratio at elevated pressures and temperatures.
(From Carr et al., 1954.)
 Homework #4
Calculation of the Viscosity of a Natural Gas and a
Sour Gas

Calculate the viscosity at 180°F and 4000 psi of the natural gas described in
HW#2 and HW#3.
Gas Formation Volume
Factor
The formation volume factor relates the reservoir volume to the volume at
standard conditions of any hydrocarbon mixture. In the case of a natural
gas, the formation volume factor, can be related with the application of the
real gas law for reservoir conditions and for standard conditions. Thus,
Homework #5
Initial Gas-in-Place
Gas Isothermal
Compressibility
The gas compressibility, often referred to as isothermal compressibility,
has an exact thermodynamic expression:
 Gas Isothermal
Compressibility (continued)
or, more conveniently, remembering the relationship between
pseudoreduced and pseudocritical pressure (Equation 4-3),

Above equation is useful because it allows the calculation of the compressibility of a

real gas at any temperature and pressure. Needed are the gas compressibility factor
Z and the slope of the Standing-Katz correlation, at the corresponding temperature
(i.e., the associated pseudoreduced temperature curve). The slope can be
determined by differentiating above equation with respect to the pseudoreduced
pressure holding the temperature constant.
Appendix C