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”’ SPE SY 3V

jpt forum

Estimating the Viscosity of Crude Oil Systems

Viscosity values of crude oils and crude oils containing
dissolved natural gas are required in various petroleum
engineering calculations. In evaluation of fluid flow in a
reservoir, the viscosity of the liquid is required at various
values of reservoir pressure and at resewoir temperature.
This information can be obtained from a standard labora-
tory PVT analysis that is mn at reservoir temperature.
There are cases, however, when the viscosity is needed at
other temperatures. The most common situation requiring
viscosities at various pressures and temperatures occurs in
the calculation of two-phase, gas-liquid flowing pressure
traverses. These pressure traverses are required in
tubing-string design, gas-lift design, and pipeline design.
Calculation of these pressure traverses involves dividing
lations for dead or gas-free crude oil as a function of API
gravity and temperature, and for live oil viscosity as a
function of dissolved gas and dead oil viscosity, A de-
scription of the data used, which were obtained from Core
Laboratories, Inc., is given in Table 1.
The correlation for dead oil viscosity was developed by
pIotting log10(T) vs logIOlog,0 (WD + 1) on cartesian
coordinates. The plots revealed a series of straight lines of
constant slope, It was found that each line represented oils
of a particul~ API gravity. The equation developed is
*D= lox- 1, . . . . . . . . . . . ...!... . . .(1)
where
-x =Y T-1.163

the flow string into a number of length increments and Y = 10Z

calculating the pressure gradient at average conditions of
Z = 3,0324 – 0.02023 YO.
pressure and temperature in the increment, Calculation of
pressure gradients requires knowledge of oil viscosity. In The correction of the dead oil viscosity for dissolved
many cases, the only information available on the fluid gas was developed by taking advantage of the fact that a
properties me the separator gas gravity and stock-tank oil linear relationship exists between log10WD and lOg,OPfor
gravity; therefore, correlations requiring a knowledge of a particular value of dissolved gas, Rs. Live oil viscosity
crude oil composition are not applicable. may be calculated from
The most popular methods presently used for predicting
oil viscosity are those of Beal 1for dead oil and Chew and /L= A~DB, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(2)
Connally’ for live or saturated oil. Beal correlated dead oil
viscosity as a function of API gravity and temperature.
TABLE1 — DESCRIPTIONOFDATAUSED
Chew and Connally presented a correlation for the effect
of dissolved gas on the oil viscosity. The dead oil viscosity Variable Range
and the amount of dissolved gas at the temperature and Solution GOR, scf/STB 20 to 2,070
Oil gravity, “API 16 to 58
pressure of interest must be known. O to 5,250
Pressure, psig
When these correlations were applied to data collected Temperature, “F 70 to 295
for a study of dissolved gas and formation volume factor, Number of oil systems = 600
considerable errors and scatter were obse~wed. These Number of dead oil observations = 460
data, therefore, were used to develop new empirical corre- Number of live oil observations = 2,073

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1140 JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY

 TABLE2 — STATISTICALCOMPARISONOFCORRELATIONS presents a statistical comparison of the correlations
Average Error Standard Deviation of Beal, Chew and Connally, and our findings.
(percent) of Percent Errors
Dead oil data used to Nomenclature
develop this correlation
R,= dissolved GOR, scf/STB
Beal -19,64 21.86
This study -0.64 13.53 T = temperature, ‘F
Dead oil data ~~ = viscosity of gas-free oil at T, cp
collected from p = viscosity of gas-saturated oil at T, cp
literature (93 cases)
% = oil gravity, “API
Beal 378.46 1,568.09
This study 114.27 530.00 References
Liveoil data used to
develop this correlation 1. Beal, C.. “Viscosity of Air, Water, Natural Gas, Crude Oil and Its
Chew and Connally 25.35 “ 35.70 Associated Gases at 011-FieldTempemnm?s and Pressures,” Trans.,
This study - 1.83 27.25 AIME (1946) 165, 94-115.
2. Chew, J. and Connally, C. A.: “A Viscosity Correlation for Gas-
Saturated Crude Oils,” Trans., AIME (1959) 216, 23-25.
where
3. Lohrenz, J., Bray, B. G., and Clark, C. R.:’‘Calculating Viscoshks
A = 10.715 (RS + 100)-0”515 of Reservoir Fluids From Their Compositions,’. J. Pet. Tech. (Oct.
B = 5.44 (Z?~+ 150)-0”338 1964) 1171-1176 Tram., AIME, 231.
4. Houpemt,A. H. andllrelliez, M. B.: “PredictingtheViscosityof
Hydrocarbon Liquid Phases From Their Composition,.’ paper SPE
Development of these correlations neglec~ the depen- 5057 presented at the SPE-AIME 49th Annual Fall Meeting, Hous-
dence of oil viscosity on composition, since oils of widely ton, Oct. 6-9, 1974.
varying compositions can have the same gravity. Viscos- 5. Little. J. E. and Kennedy, H. T.: “A Correlation of the Viscosity of
Hydr&arbon Systems With Pressure, Temperature and Composi-
ity does depend on composition, and if the composition is
tion,” Sot. Pet. Errg. J. (June 1968) 157-162; Trans., AIME, 243.
available other correlations3-5 exist that should be used for
greater accuracy. However, the correlations presented H. D. Beggs, SPE-AIME
here are easy to use and give fair accuracy and precision J. R. Robinson, *sPE-AIME
over a wide range of oil gravity, temperature, and dis- U. of Tulsa
solved gas. As is the case with any empirical study, Tulsa, Okla.
extrapolation outside the range of the data used to develop
the correlations should be done with caution. Table 2 “NowwithMarathonOilCo.,Littleton,Colo.

Solids Control in Weighted Drilling Fluids

“Introduction
The need for solids control’for drilling mud systems has
been widely discussed in the literaturel-e and is gaining
acceptance in drilling operations. tie of the major ad-
vantages of reduced drill-solids contei<in drilling muds
are lower plastic viscosity, improved filtir.cakes, longer
bit bearing and pump life, and improved pertqtration rate.
Increases in the drill-solids content of mu&.generally
lead to higher filtration ratm and increased falter-cake
thickness. TMck falter cakes aggravate the proble of
differential-pressure sticking and cause increases \in’
torque and ‘drag on the &lMring. Field observations\
indicate that filter-cake properties can be cont@lled by
controlling the amount and types of solids in the mud.
Surprisingly, drill solids cause a drastic reduction in
bit-bearing life. King’ performed a series of experiments
using an 8%-in. blt with 50,000 lb weight and rotating at
SEPTEMBER, 1975
60 rpm. K en water was the circulating fluid, the bear-
ings his 36 hours. The addition of formation cuttings
decre 2 ed the bearing life to 26 hours. When the mud was
treated with caustic and quebracho, the bearing life was
reduced to 12 hours. When the same experiment was
donducted using bentonite instead of formation clays, the
bearing life increased from 36 to 38 hours. Additions of
caustic and quebracho to tlds system did not reduce the
bearing life, but when drill solids were added to this mud
the bearing life decreased to 15 hours.
~ew Mud-Treating System (Mud Cleaner)
To ‘b ercome many of the limitations of current solids-
removL lmiques, a new mud-treating system was de-
vekqxd f~ eighted muds. This new system, called the
Mud Cleaner,
\ moves most of the drilled solids while
\
1141