Page 14 - PVT Property Correlations

Foreword

As a practicing petroleum engineer and educator, hardly a day goes by with-
out my need for hydrocarbon PVT properties. My initial exposure to hydro-
carbon properties used rigorous approaches described by chemical engineers.
Subsequently Dr. Marshall Standing, who developed some of the first corre-
lations available for practical applications, taught me, and my student collea-
gues at Stanford University, how to use correlations to estimate hydrocarbon
fluid properties. Before the existence of personal computers, the high-end
HP handheld calculator provided programs for engineers to use. The correla-
tions were much more practical to use than the tedious chemical engineering
calculations.
By far the best source for hydrocarbon fluid properties is a representative
fluid sample from the reservoir. However, when assets change hands, such
data may be difficult to find, especially for fields that have been on produc-
tion for many years. Often reports and journal publications also provide only
limited information on hydrocarbon fluid properties. Existing PVT and fluid
properties correlations provide engineers with a mechanism to estimate quan-
tities needed for conceptual, screening, and full field simulation models.
PVT Property Correlations, Selection and Estimation provides a thorough
collection of existing correlations for hydrocarbon fluid properties and, more
importantly, underscores the importance of making accurate fluid property
estimations and how to select the model that best represents fluid from a
given reservoir. The emphasis on the types of hydrocarbon reservoirs is espe-
cially useful for petroleum engineering students. By accompanying the book
with programmed correlations, students can focus on broader and essential
uses for accurate fluid property data. Further, the scope of the book will
serve as a handbook for experienced practitioners.

Dr. Christine Ehlig-Economides
University of Houston

xiii