PART I - MULTIPHASE PIPELINE & SLUG CATCHER DESIGN GUIDE

The choice of models for gas-condensate and volatile oil systems is clear. Compositional
models should be used for any gas-condensate or volatile oil system. This recommendation
covers gas-oil ratios above about 3500 SCF/bbl.

For lower gas-oil ratios, the choice of models is more difficult. Compositional models
should give more accurate phase equilibrium results, but the physical property estimates
from the compositional models may not be as good as the black oil model. (Section 6-1
illustrates this point.) As a result, it cannot be stated categorically that either the black oil
model or the compositional model is superior for low gas-oil ratio systems. General
practice with Pipephase has been to use the black oil model for lower gas-oil ratio streams.

The accuracy of compositional modeling depends, in a large part, on the characterization

of the heavy ends of the well stream. The materials heavier than hexane (C6+) are usually
characterized by use of pseudo-components or cuts. The heavy ends could be
characterized by one C6+ cut, or by a series of cuts corresponding to various boiling
ranges. In general, the accuracy of the predictions increases when more cuts are used.

Pipephase requires two of the following parameters in order to characterize a cut: specific
gravity; molecular weight; or normal boiling point. In many cases, the mole fractions for
cuts heavier than C6 may have been measured in the PVT analysis, but cut properties
were not noted. In cases like this, the customary assumption is to use the properties of the
corresponding normal paraffin as the cut properties. This adds some error to the analysis,
but it is unavoidable in many circumstances.

If tests of the phase equilibrium and physical properties have been done as part of the
wellstream analysis, Pipephase allows the users of the black oil model to adjust the model
predictions for solution GOR, densities, and liquid viscosity to match experimental
values. The pipeline predictions after PVT matching should be considerably better than
those obtained with use of the standard correlations.

If the compositional model is used in Pipephase, the only variable that can be easily
manipulated to match experimental data is the liquid viscosity. Pipephase does not have an
option that will automatically adjust the phase equilibrium calculations to match
experimental data. It is possible to manually modify the phase equilibrium calculations, but

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