Summary
Reservoir simulation and research activities of heavy oil production
processes (steam-assisted gravity drainage, vapour extraction, or the
steam/solvent combined hybrid process) require accurate values of equilibrium
constants (K-values) at elevated temperatures. However, such data are
rarely available in open literature either because of the temperature
limitation of pressure/volume/temperature (PVT) equipment or difficulties in
performing high-temperature three-phase vapour/liquid equilibrium (VLE)
experiments.
In this paper--with the assistance of a state-of-the-art fully visual PVT
cell that was specifically developed for heavy viscous oils, is capable of
performing fluid-phase-behaviour studies at temperatures up to 250°C, and that
effectively mixes samples with viscosity up to 1,000 cp at test temperature--a
heavy-oil/solvent/steam equilibrium case study is presented. The heavy oil was
mixed with solvent and water at a specified weight ratio, temperature, and
pressure in the heavy-oil PVT cell. After achieving equilibrium, the volumes of
vapour, liquid, and water phases were measured. The samples from each phase
were drawn for compositional analysis using gas chromatography (GC), and
K-values of the hydrocarbon components were examined. The component
compositions from this experiment were used for equation-of-state (EOS) model
tuning. This case study shows that with proper care, the EOS can be
characterized and used to match with experimental data for heavy oil.
© 2011. Society of Petroleum Engineers
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History
- Original manuscript received:
25 November 2010
- Meeting paper published:
20 October 2010
- Revised manuscript received:
25 March 2011
- Manuscript approved:
30 March 2011
- Published online:
31 May 2011
- Version of record:
9 June 2011
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