Reservoir Fluid Properties Lab

PVT Experiments: Differential Liberation:

The differential liberation experiment is also called the differential vaporization
experiment and it best describes a reservoir depleting below the bubble point
pressure where critical gas saturation has been reached and gas is mobile.
In the differential liberation process, the solution gas that is liberated from an oil
sample during a decline in pressure is continuously removed from contact with
the oil. This type of liberation is characterized by a varying composition of the
total hydrocarbon system.
The experimental data obtained from the test include:
• Amount of gas in solution as a function of pressure
• The shrinkage in the oil volume as a function of pressure
• Properties of the evolved gas including the composition of the liberated
gas, the gas compressibility factor, and the gas specific gravity
• Density of the remaining oil as a function of pressure
The differential liberation test is considered to better describe the separation
process taking place in the reservoir and is also considered to simulate the flowing
behavior of hydrocarbon systems at conditions above the critical gas saturation.
As the saturation of the liberated gas reaches the critical gas saturation, the
liberated gas begins to flow, leaving behind the oil that originally contained
it. This is attributed to the fact that gases have, in general, higher mobility than
oils. Consequently, this behavior follows the differential liberation sequence.
The test is carried out on reservoir oil samples and involves charging a visual PVT
cell with a liquid sample at the bubble-point pressure and at reservoir
temperature.
As shown schematically in the Figure, the pressure is reduced in steps, usually 10
to 15 pressure levels, and all the liberated gas is removed and its volume is
measured at standard conditions. The volume of oil remaining VL is also
measured at each pressure level. It should be noted that the remaining oil is
subjected to continual compositional changes as it becomes progressively richer
in the heavier components.
The above procedure is continued to atmospheric pressure where the volume
of the residual (remaining) oil is measured and converted to a volume at 60°F,
Vsc. The differential oil formation volume factors Bod (commonly called the
relative oil volume factors) at all the various pressure levels are calculated by
dividing the recorded oil volumes VL by the volume of residual oil Vsc, or:

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The differential solution gas-oil ratio Rsd is also calculated by dividing the
volume of gas in solution by the residual oil volume.

Expelled gas is also collected and the composition is measured using, mostly,
cryogenic distillation and/or gas chromatographic techniques. Results from
differential liberation experiment include:
- Oil Formation Volume Factor:

- Solution Gas–Oil-Ratio

- Gas Formation Volume Factor

The sample of reservoir fluid in the laboratory cell is brought to bubble point
pressure, and temperature is set at reservoir temperature. Pressure is reduced by
increasing cell volume, then all the gas is expelled from the cell while pressure in
the cell is held constant by reducing cell volume. The gas is collected and its
quantity and specific gravity are measured. The volume of liquid remaining in the
cell, Vo is measured. This process is shown in Fig.

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The process is repeated in steps until atmospheric pressure is reached. Then

temperature is reduced to 60 oF, and the volume of remaining liquid is measured.
This is called residual oil from differential vaporization or residual oil. This process
is called differential vaporization, differential liberation or differential expansion.
Each of values of volume of cell liquid, Vo, is divided by the volume of the residual
oil. The result is called Oil Formation Volume Factor:

and is given by BoD.

The volume of gas removed during each step is measured both at cell conditions
and at standard conditions. The Z-factor is calculated as:
V𝑅 P𝑅 T𝑠𝑐
𝑍=
V𝑠𝑐 P𝑠𝑐 T𝑅
Where R refers to conditions in the cell.
Formation volume factors of the gas removed are calculated with these z- factors
using equation:
𝑍𝑇
B𝑔 = 0.0282 𝑐𝑢 𝑓𝑡/𝑠𝑐𝑓
𝑃
Gas Formation Volume Factor

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The total volume of gas removed during the entire process is the amount of gas in
solution at the bubble point pressure. This total volume is divided by the volume of
the residual oil, and the units are converted to standard cubic feet per barrel of
residual oil. The symbol RsDb represents standard cubic feet of gas removed per
barrel of residual oil.
Solution Gas–Oil-Ratio

The gas remaining in solution at any lower pressure is calculated by subtracting the
sum of the gas removed down to and including the pressure of interest from the
total volume of gas removed. The result is divided by the volume of residual oil,
converted to scf/residual bbl, and reported as RsD.
Relative total volume at any pressure is calculated as:
B𝑡𝐷 = 𝐵𝑜𝐷 + 𝐵𝑔 (𝑅𝑠𝐷𝑏 − 𝑅𝑠𝐷 )

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Example:
The following example guides you on how to use and interpret the data from
Differential Liberation test. The reservoir temperature is T= 200 °F and the bubble
point pressure is 3330 psia.
The essential data obtained from the differential liberation experiment, performed
on the same oil sample as CCE test, are listed in the following table:

Results of isothermal differential liberation at 200 °F:

After the pressure drop from 2700 to 2400 psia, column 2 of the table indicates
that 0.0466 volumes of gas are taken off from the cell at the lower pressure and at
200°F. These gas volumes vg (small v) are measured relative to the unit volume of
bubble point oil, as are all the relative volumes listed in the table. After each stage,
the incremental volume of liberated gas is expanded to standard conditions and
re−measured as Vg relative volumes (column 3). Column 4 is simply the cumulative
amount of gas liberated below the bubble point expressed at standard conditions.
Dividing values in column 3 by those in column 2 (Vg /vg ) gives the gas expansion
factor E (column 5). Thus the 0.0466 relative volumes liberated at 2400 psia will
expand to give 6.9457 relative volumes at standard conditions and the gas
expansion factor is therefore 6.9457/.0466 = 149.05. Knowing E, the Z-factor of the
liberated gas can be determined by solving the following equation:

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Z = 35.37 × [P/ (E × T)]

Z = 35.37 × [2400 / (149.05 × 660)]
Z = 0.863
These values are listed in column 6.
Finally, the relative oil volumes, vo , are measured at each stage of depletion after
removal of the liberated gas, as listed in column 7.
Primary Results from a Differential Liberation Experiment Performed on an Oil
Mixture could be summarized as per below:
Bo: Oil formation volume factor, i.e., oil volume at actual pressure, divided by
volume of residual oil at standard conditions.
Rs: Solution gas/oil ratio, i.e., the total standard volume of gas liberated at lower
pressure stages than the actual one, divided by the volume of the residual oil at
standard conditions.
Oil density: Density of oil phase at cell conditions.
Bg : Gas formation volume factor defined as the gas volume at the actual pressure
divided by the volume of the same gas at standard conditions.
Z-factor gas: The compressibility factor, also known as the compression factor or
the gas deviation factor, is a correction factor which describes the deviation of a
real gas from ideal gas behavior.
Gas gravity: Molecular weight of the gas liberated divided by the molecular weight
of atmospheric air (= 28.964).

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