Volumetric Behavior of Oil and Gas From a Louisiana Field I

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Abstract An experimental investigation was conducted upon five different pairedsamples of oil and gas from a field in Louisiana. The study, with each pair ofsamples, included the measurement of the formation volume and the volume of theliquid phase for three mixtures of the oil and gas. The gas-oil ratio variedfrom approximately 200 to over 40,000 cu ft per bbl and measurements were madeat temperatures between 40' and 250'F. The gravity of the tank oil for the fivesamples under investigation varied between 38.0? and 55.8? API. The composition of the oil and gas samples and their mixtures is submitted intabular form. A number of diagrams depicting the effect of temperature andgas-oil ratio upon retrograde dew-point pressure are presented. Introduction During the past two decades a fairly large number of investigations were madeof the volumetric behavior of naturally occurring hydrocarbon mixtures. Theearlier work of Beecher and Parkhurst and a more recent report on samples fromDominguez Field are typical of research of this nature. Such studies have beenused in estimating the volumetric behavior of fluids in producing fields otherthan those from which samples were taken. Progress has been made in correlatingthe influence of pressure, temperature, and composition upon the specific andformation volume of hydrocarbon mixtures of relatively low gas-oil ratios, butattempts to extend this correlation to higher ratios have not been particularlysuccessful. The influence of composition upon the volumetric behavior of suchsystems cannot be simply related to a single parameter such as gas-oil ratio.In order to aid in the extension of the correlation, of the volumetric behaviorof mixtures of oil and gas to higher ratios, a rather complete study was madeof five different pairs of samples from a Louisiana field. The complexity ofthe influence of composition upon the volumetric and phase behavior of suchsystems in the regions of retrograde condensation was indicated by earlierwork, and it is doubtful if simple correlations can be established in theseregions with the information currently available. The terminology employed inthis paper is identical to that utilized earlier. T.P. 2950