Reservoir fluids properties are very important in reservoir engineering computations such as material balance calculations, well testing analyses, reserve estimates, and numerical reservoir simulations. Isothermal oil compressibility is required in fluid flow problems, extension of fluid properties from values at the bubble point pressure to higher pressures of interest and in material balance calculations (Ramey, Spivey, and McCain). Isothermal oil compressibility is a measure of the fractional change in volume as pressure is changed at constant temperature (McCain). The most accurate method for determining the Isothermal oil compressibility is a laboratory PVT analysis; however, the evaluation of exploratory wells often require an estimate of the fluid behavior prior to obtaining a representative reservoir sample. Also, experimental data is often unavailable.Empirical correlations are often used for these purposes.
This paper developed a new mathematical model for calculating undersaturated oil compressibility using 129 experimentally obtained data points from the PVT analyses of 52 bottom hole fluid samples from Mishrif reservoirs in the southern Iraqi oil fields. The new undersaturated oil compressibility correlation developed using Statistical Analysis System (SAS) by applying nonlinear multiple regression method. It was found that the new correlation estimates undersaturated oil compressibility of Mishrif reservoir crudes in the southern Iraqi oil fields much better than the published ones. The average absolute relative error for the developed correlation is 7.16%.
