University of Zakho

College of engineering
Petroleum engineering
3rd stage

Reservoir fluid properties

Title: constant compositional expansion (CCE test)

Name: yosif Khalil sleman

Supervised by: mr. alladin taha

Date of submitting: 1st march 2023

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Table of contents:

Objective…………………………………………………….3

Introduction………………………………………………….3

Theory……………………………………………………….4

Instrument (equipment)………………………………………6

Procedure……………………………………………………..7

Calculations…………………………………………………..8

Discussions & Concluisons…………………………………..11

References …………………………………………………13

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Objective:
The aim of this test is to provide information on determination
of dew point, gas deviation factor, and relative volume of the
fluid at different pressures and to determine the bubble point
pressure. and Isothermal compressibility coefficients of the
single-phase fluid in excess of saturation pressure.

Introduction:
The constant composition expansion (CCE) or constant mass
expansion (CME) experiment is one of the standard depletion
experiments. The main outputs of a CCE test are an estimate of
the saturation pressure and volume versus pressure. Traditional
blind PVT-cells only provide the total cell volume versus
pressure, while more modern visual PVT-cells also estimate the
liquid and vapor volume amounts. These visual PVT-cells may
also indicate the first visual sign of the incipient phase.
Once we have a sample of reservoir fluid, either directly or by
recombination, we need to do reservoir fluid measurement, often
called PVT analysis. There are mainly 6 fluid properties
measured: oil density, gas density, solution GOR, bubble point
pressure, formation volume factor, and viscosity

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Theory:
The constant composition expansion (CCE) or constant mass
expansion (CME) test is carried out in virtually all PVT studies
irrespective of fluid type. This particular test is also called flash
vaporization, flash liberation, flash expansion, or simply PV
relation. As the name suggests, the overall composition of the
reservoir fluid or its original mass always remains constant
because none of the test fluid is ever removed from the PVT
cell. The primary objective of CCE tests is to study the PV
relationship of a given reservoir fluid and determine its
saturation pressure. Figure 15.17 conceptually shows the CCE
process. A single-phase sample of the reservoir fluid is loaded in
a PVT cell. The loaded sample is pressurized to a value equal to
or greater than the initial reservoir pressure, and the air-bath
temperature is set at reservoir temperature. The sample is
typically stabilized at these conditions by operating the pump on
a constant pressure mode. After the pressure and temperature
conditions are stabilized. a pressure depletion experiment is
carried out by increasing the volume in increments. The cell
contents are agitated regularly to aid the equilibration process.
The total and phase volumes of the hydrocarbon system are
recorded at each pressure step. The depletion process continues
in this fashion until a predetermined low pressure or the capacity
of the cell is reached. In case of windowed PVT cells, saturation
pressures can also be determined by visual observation of cell
contents. After completion of the test. the PV data are plotted. A
PV relationship plot for a black oil from a CCE experiment is
shown in Figure 15.18. As seen in this figure. for a black oil

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system. the transition from a single phase to a two-phase system
is readily apparent in the plot.

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Bubble point pressure (Pb) is one of the critical reservoir fluid
pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) properties. It is the pressure
at which the first bubble of the gas comes out of the oil solution.
(An accurate reservoir Pb is critical for performing proper
material balance, reservoir, and petroleum production
calculations. Therefore, it is significant to predict the Pb
accurately. However, PVT measurements are costly and time-
2consuming. Therefore, many studies have used different
methods such as regressions, machine learning, and deep
learning (long short-term memory (LSTM)) to predict the Pb
with varying degrees of success. The Pb prediction methods are
developed based on different approaches.

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Instrument (equipment used):
The apparatus used to perform this experiment is the PV cell, as
shown in the figure below. The fluid is charged in the PV cell
after recombining the oil and gas in the correct proportions. The
temperature, controlled by a thermostat, is maintained constant
throughout the experiment (the measured reservoir temperature).
The cell pressure is controlled by a positive displacement pump
and recorded on an accurate pressure gauge.

Procedure:
A PVT-cell is loaded with a fluid sample and pressurized to a
pressure above the saturation pressure (this may be higher than
the initial reservoir pressure if the fluid is initially
undersaturated). The PVT-cell volume is then increased at a
constant temperature, resulting in a decreased pressure. The
pressure is recorded at the different PVT-cell volumes and is
reported in the PVT report.

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Calculation:
Example: determine the bubble point pressure and prepare a
table of pressure and relative volume for the reservoir fluid
study:
pressure Total volume
5000 61.030
4500 61.435
4000 61.866
3500 62.341
3000 62.866
2900 62.974
2800 63.088
2700 63.208
2605 63.455
2591 63.576
2516 64.291
2401 65.532
2253 67.400
2090 69.901
1897 73.655
1698 78.676
1477 86.224
1292 95.050
1040 112.715
830 136.908
640 174.201
472 235.700

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 Solution:

6000

5000

4000
pressure

3000

2000

1000

0
50 100 150 200 250
Total volume

Volume bubble point = 78.676

Pressure bubble point = 1698

v total 61.030
V relative = vbp = 78.676
=0.775 cc

p sat− p 1698−1477
Y function = =
p (v rel−1) 1477(1.0959−1)
=1.5602

V relative Y function
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 0.775 ---
0.780 ---
0.786 ---
0.792 ---
0.799 ---
0.800 ---
0.801 ---
0.803 ---
0.806 ---
0.808 ---
0.817 ---
0.832 ---
0.856 ---
0.888 ---
0.936 ---
1.000 ---
1.0959 1.5062
1.2081 1.5100
1.4326 1.4625
1.7401 1.4130
2.214 1.3617
2.9958 1.3014

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 1.6

1.55

1.5
unction
1.45

1.4

1.35

1.3

1.25

1.2

1.15
400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
Pressure psig

Discussion and concluosion:

In the beginning we right down our table of pressure and total
volume that are given. Then after that we plotted a diagram for
both of them, and then we estimated bubble point pressure and
pressure bubble point by making two straight line one vertically
and one semi-horizontally, then we got an intersection point
between these two lines, for x-axis (bubble point pressure) it
was about 1698 psig. And for y-axis (volume of bubble point) it
was about 78.676 cc. then we needed to determine the relative
volume of each number by using the equation and we continued
until the last number, because that relative volume helped us for
determining the y-function (The Y-function determination is a
traditional part of oil PVT studies, providing an equation to

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match the two-phase region of the flash study. Proper use of the
Y-function can lead to bubble point measurements of the highest
precision, essential for reliable reservoir property correlation
work and of great use in the quality control of samples). But for
y-function we didn’t determine every number, we only
determined those which are under bubble point pressure (which
their relative volume equals to 1), and so on. Then we needed to
plot a diagram for pressure bubble point and below and the y-
function below bubble point pressure, and through these
diagrams we are going to be capable of knowing every data and
that data includes an equation of that slope which is going to be
solved on that way. Any calculation of the phase behavior of a
reservoir fluid from the reservoir to the refinery requires prior
knowledge of the fluid's physical properties. Because the
necessary pressure- volume-temperature (PVT) experiments are
not free of systematic and random errors, the engineer involved
in using fluid models is advised to check the fluid properties
determined by the laboratory before application in their
simulation models. The important properties we learned in this
test is determining the bubble point pressure which is the
pressure at which the first bubble of gas comes out from the
liquid at a given temperature. And we learned the way of
making diagrams that contains y-function and pressure.

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References:
https://books.google.iq/books?
id=Oda3MN4cYBoC&pg=PA288&dq=constant+composition+e
xpansion&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjXuJ6t9bj9AhXScvED
HTSJCtYQ6AF6BAgDEAI

https://production-technology.org/constant-composition-
expansion/

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Constant-composition-
expansion-CCE-experiment_fig1_339991562

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jchem/2016/2742696/

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