APPLICATION OF THE BLACK OIL PVT REPRESENTATION TO SIMULATION OF GAS CONDENSATE RESERVOIR PERFORMANCE

Abstract

Special attention must be paid to the generation of PVT parameters when applying conventional black oil reservoir simulators to the modelling of volatile oil and gas-condensate reservoirs. In such reservoirs phase behaviour is an important phenomenon and common approaches to approximating this, via the black oil PVT representation, introduce errors that may result in prediction of incorrect recoveries of surface gas and condensate. Further, determination of production tubing pressure drops for use in such simulators is also prone to errors. These affect the estimation of well potentials and reservoir abandonment pressures.

Calculation of black oil PVT parameters by the method of Coats (1985) is shown to be preferred over conventional approaches, although the PVT parameters themselves lose direct physical meaning. It is essential that a properly tuned equation of state be available for use in conjunction with experimental data.

Production forecasting based on simulation output requires further processing in order to translate the black oil surface phase fluxes into products such as sales gas, LPG and condensate. For gas-condensate reservoirs, such post-processing of results from the simulation of depletion or cycling above the dew point is valid. In principle it is invalid for cycling below the dew point but in practice it can still provide useful information.