oa Development of New Correlations for Predicting Bubble Point Pressure and Bubble Point Oil formation Volume Factor of Malaysian Crude Oils

One of the most crucial parts of the input data in petroleum engineering calculations is fluid properties data. From the exploration stage, these properties should be determined either by laboratory experiments or using some empirical correlations. Although, no one can underestimate the accuracy of the experimental results but these results are highly tied to the quality of the sample taken from the reservoir fluid and also, the condition of the reservoir can affect the quality of the sample. In addition, sometimes laboratory data is not available or maybe for double checking and comparison purposes, we need another source of dataset rather than experimental data. In this situation, empirical correlations can be a relatively reliable alternative. These correlations can predict physical properties of reservoir fluid under a wide range of pressure and temperature1. Among the properties of the reservoir fluids, Bubble point pressure (Pb) and oil formation volume factor (Bo) at Pb ,are essential in reservoir engineering calculations, since in improved oil recovery(IOR), if the reservoir pressure reaches to the Pb , the gas will start to evolve in the reservoir and due to the gas bubbles, the oil relative permeability will drastically decrease. Also, estimating Bo at Pb is quite challenging because this point is a inflection point in the curve of Bo vs. pressure and Bo is in its maximum value at Pb .So, it is very important to correctly predict it at Pb 2 . In this study, the new correlations has been developed to estimate bubble point pressure and oil formation volume factor of Malaysian crude oils. This correlation is applicable for crude oils of ranging between 26 to 54 ºAPI. The comparison of this new correlation with other published ones shows that it is much more accurate than the other ones.