Estimating the Viscosity of Crude Oil Systems
Authors: Beggs H.D. , Robinson J.R. 
Published: December 2007

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 reservoir temperature. This information can be obtained from a standard laboratory PVT analysis that is run 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 the flow string into a number of length increments and calculating the pressure gradient at average conditions of pressure and temperature in the increment. Calculation of pressure and temperature in the increment. Calculation of pressure gradients requires knowledge of oil viscosity. In pressure gradients requires knowledge of oil viscosity. In many cases, the only information available on the fluid properties are the separator gas gravity and stock-tank oil properties are the separator gas gravity and stock-tank oil gravity; therefore, correlations requiring a knowledge of crude oil composition are not applicable.The most popular methods presently used for predicting oil viscosity are those of Beal for dead oil and Chew and Connally for live or saturated oil. Beal correlated dead oil viscosity as a function of API gravity and temperature. Chew and Connally presented a correlation for the effect of dissolved gas on the oil viscosity. The dead oil viscosity and the amount of dissolved gas at the temperature and pressure of interest must be known. pressure of interest must be known. When these correlations were applied to data collected for a study of dissolved gas and formation volume factor, considerable errors and scatter were observed. These data, therefore, were used to develop new empirical correlations 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 description 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 plotting log 10 (T) vs log 10 log 10 (mu OD + 1) on cartesian plotting log 10 (T) vs log 10 log 10 (mu OD + 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 particular API gravity. The equation developed is

=, ........................(1)

where

X =

y =

Z =

The correction of the dead oil viscosity for dissolved gas was developed by taking advantage of the fact that a linear relationship exists between log 10 mu OD and log 10 mu for a particular value of dissolved gas, Rs. Live oil viscosity may be calculated from

= ...........................(2)

TABLE 1 - DESCRIPTION OF DATA USED

Variable Range Solution GOR, scf/STB 20 to 2,070 Oil gravity, API 16 to 58 Pressure, psig 0 to 5,250 Pressure, psig 0 to 5,250 Temperature, F 70 to 295 Number of oil systems - 600 Number of dead oil observations - 460 Number of live oil observations 2,073

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