Reservoir Fluid Laboratory Third stage
Fourth Experiment
Bubble Point Pressure Determination
Objective:
To determine the bubble point pressure of the reservoir fluid (petroleum) at reservoir
conditions or lab fluid (CO2) at laboratory conditions.
Introduction:
Saturation pressure is a term referred to bubble point pressure or dew point pressure. It is
the pressure at which an additional phase starts to form. For a gas condensate this additional
phase appears as a liquid droplet and the pressure at this point called dew point pressure,
and for an oil it will be seen as a gas bubble and the pressure at this point called bubble
point pressure.
Theory:
To optimize the production from an oil or a gas field, it is essential to have extensive
knowledge of the volumetric and phase changes of the reservoir fluid is likely to undergo
on its way from petroleum reservoir to oil refinery. The pressure and temperature will
gradually decrease in production well. It will further decrease in flowlines connecting the
well to the process plant and in the process plant itself. The volumetric changes taking
place in the reservoir, during passage of the well and in the process plant, can be studied
by performing PVT experiments on the reservoir fluid. Figure (10) illustrates schematically
the production path of a reservoir fluid.
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Reservoir Fluid Laboratory Third stage
First stage Second stage Stock tank
Separation stages
Figure (10): production path of a reservoir fluid.
PVT properties is the general term used to express the volumetric behavior of a reservoir
fluid as a function of pressure and temperature. An essential PVT property is the saturation
pressure (bubble point pressure or dew point pressure) at reservoir temperature. The
constant-mass (or constant-composition) which also called flash liberation is one of the
PVT experiment which used to determine the following properties:
1. Bubble point pressure: By the following procedure as in figure (10). After transporting
the fluid sample to PVT cell, the pressure is adjusted to a value equals to or greater than
initial reservoir pressure and the temperature of the cell sets to reservoir temperature. By
removing the mercury or glycerin from PVT cell, the pressure is reduced until exceeding
the bubble point pressure as shown in figure (11).
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Reservoir Fluid Laboratory Third stage
Figure (11): Constant mass experiment to determine bubble point pressure.
2. Relative volume: is the ratio between the actual volume and the volume at the saturation
pressure.
𝑉 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙
𝑉𝑟𝑒𝑙 = ..............(4)
𝑉 𝑠𝑎𝑡.
3. Oil density: Calculated above saturation point pressure by the following equation:
𝜌𝑠𝑎𝑡.
𝜌= … … … … … . . (5)
𝑉 𝑟𝑒𝑙
4- Isothermal compressibility: Calculated above saturation point pressure from equation
(3):
1 ꝺ𝑣
𝐶𝑜 = − ( ) … … … . . (6)
𝑉 ꝺ𝑝 𝑇
5. Y-factor: is a measure of the ratio between the relative changes in pressure and total
volume in the two-phase region and calculated below saturation point from the following
equation:
𝑃𝑠𝑎𝑡.− 𝑃
𝑃
𝑌 − 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 = 𝑉𝑡𝑜𝑡.−𝑉𝑠𝑎𝑡. .............(7)
𝑉𝑠𝑎𝑡.
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Reservoir Fluid Laboratory Third stage
Procedure:
1. Filling the PVT cell fully with mercury or glycerin by rotating the hand-wheel
clockwise until first drop of the glycerin is appeared above the PVT cell.
2. Sampling the CO2 gas to the PVT cell with the same pressure of CO2 cylinder by
connecting the closed pipe of CO2 cylinder to the cell and providing the pressure in the
cell from pump.
3. After pressing the pump to the required pressure of CO2 cylinder by rotating the hand-
wheel clockwise, the valve of the CO2 pipe is opened and observed no flowing of the
CO2 gas to PVT cell because of pressure equilibrium between the PVT cell and CO2
cylinder.
4. Now, the required volume of CO2 gas is transferred to the PVT cell by rotating the
hand-wheel counter clockwise and reading the volume from the pump ruler.
5. Raising the PVT cell pressure to very high values to ensure that all CO2 gas will be
transformed to liquid.
6. The pressure of the cell starts to reduce with equal steps and the volume at each pressure
step is read from pump ruler and recorded as follows:
Pressure Volume
7. By plotting the volume versus pressure, the bubble point pressure represents the point
at which two lines cross as shown in figure (12).
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Reservoir Fluid Laboratory Third stage
Figure (12) Example of bubble point pressure determination.
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