This PhD project is under the second work package (reservoir fluids) of the NextOil project. Through the study of physical properties and phase equilibrium of HP/HT reservoir fluids in this work package, it is expected to provide a better basis for estimating the amount of petroleum resources in the reservoir and for forecasting the production through reservoir simulations. The second work package consists of both modeling and experimental studies and this project is focused on the modeling aspect.
The project is aimed to generate a more accurate description of the physical properties and phase equilibrium for HP/HT reservoir fluids. It will be investigated whether advanced equations of state (EoS) in non-cubic forms, including both the SAFT-type EoS with strong theoretical basis and the empirical BWR-type EoS, can be advantageous for describing the physical properties and phase equilibrium of reservoir fluids over a wide temperature and pressure range. If successful, it can be a paradigm shift for the current practice in PVT modeling and compositional reservoir simulation, which is built almost exclusively on cubic equations of state. Among the physical properties to be investigated, the reverse Joule-Thomson effects will in particular be studied. Under the reverse Joule-Thomson effects, a decrease in pressure results in an increase in temperature. This is just the opposite of the phenomenon at low pressure but commonly observed in HP/HT fields. In addition, a crucial step to apply the advanced EoS to reservoir fluids is oil characterization and a comprehensive approach should be developed for that.
Supervisor: Senior Researcher, Wei Yan, weya@kemi.dtu.dk
Co-supervisor: Prof. Erling H.Stenby, ehst@kemi.dtu.dk