The dead oil viscosity correlations A C-sharp simulation approach

Abstract EN

-Over the years, different authors have proposed many dead oil viscosity correlations for various crude oil mixtures from all over the world.

The majority of correlations fall into a category that uses system temperature and oil API gravity as the only required correlation parameters.

This category may be designated as the least accurate and it might not successfully correlate viscosity since it ignores the paraffinicity or character of the crude oil.

Another set of correlations offers increased accuracy in calculating dead oil viscosity.

It requires, however, the Watson characterization factor as an extra parameter.

This factor provides a means of identifying the paraffinicity or character of the crude oil.

It stays reasonably constant for the chemically similar hydrocarbons.

The Watson factor and the boiling point are related together through the API gravity.

In this paper, two regression equations, for evaluating the boiling point of hydrocarbons (pure components and crude oils) as a function of API gravity, are proposed.

Therefore, the Watson factor will be evaluated as a function of boiling point; which, in turn will be evaluated as a function of API gravity.

It has also been concluded from this study that the boiling point equation for pure components may be used for crude oils having API gravity greater than 30.

Another aspect of the paper is that all correlations were coded in an object-oriented manner, which offers flexibility in programming and allows the different parts of the code to be described easily and in a natural manner as if they were real world objects.

This allows for their simple inclusion in commercial black oil or compositional reservoir simulators.

Eight correlations of the first category and two of the second category were considered for a sharp review from a simulation perspective.

Eight experimentally-generated data sets were used to test all correlations and to quality check the validity of the proposed equations.