Extended viscosity and density technology

Objective

Wells productivity is directly related to the viscosity of the reservoir fluid.
The cost of an extra wcll in Ihe North Sea can induce the abandonment of the reservoir development project, the latter becoming non-economical. A recent evaluation indicates that the cost of 100 wells on-shore is equivalent to the cost of 5-10 wells off-shore. In the case of deep off-shore reservoirs, this cost corresponds to only 1-2 wells.
Recent discoveries at high depth mostly concern rich condensate gases. Because of that, this project is mainly focused on such fluids.
All these industrial facts make it necessary to develop prediction models for the viscosity of reservoir gases in.
high pressure-high temperature (HP/HT) conditions. As viscosity is strongly correlated with density and temperature, it is compulsory to simultaneously make available to users appropriate models for density computation.
This project will thus implement reliable and accurate models for predicting both densities and viscosities of HP/HT rich condensate gases, these models being necessarily built on a consistant data base.
Therefore this project will involve the implementation of four main tasks:
- at first a data acquisition programme on synthetic mixtures representativeof the natural fluids mentioned hereabove;
- in parallel to the latter, improvement of existing models, as presentlyviscosity is one of the weakest parameters predicted for complex gaseoushydrocarbon mixtures under high pressures, available models usuallyoverestimating experimental values by 50-70%;
- the next step for the data acquisition will be to extend it to a set ofselected real reservoir condensate gases;
- the final task of this project will be the validation of thc modelspreviously developed in order to test the accuracy of their results in awide range of industrial applicability.
It is important to emphasize here that such models are not only needed to improve the performance of wells and thc recovery of natural gases, but also to better design the fuel injectors in diesel engines for the obtention of very small-sized drops, thus reducing the emission of carbon particles in the exhaust gases.

Programme(s)

• FP4-NNE-JOULE C - Specific programme for research and technological development, including demonstration in the field of non-nuclear energy, 1994-1998

Topic(s)

• 04040101 - Reservoir evaluation and management

Funding Scheme

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinator

GROUPEMENT EUROPÉEN DE RECHERCHES TECHNOLOGIQUES SUR LES HYDROCARBURES

Address

Avenue Napoléon Bonaparte 232
92500 Rueil Malmaison
France

Participants (4)

Danmarks Tekniske Universitet

Denmark

Address

2800 Build Lyngby

HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY

United Kingdom

Address

Riccarton
EH14 4AS Edinburgh

UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

Portugal

Address

Rua Dr Roberto Frias
4200 Porto

Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour - UPPA

France

Address

Avenue De L'université
64000 Pau