Impact of PVT correlations development on hydrocarbon accounting: The case of the Niger Delta

The Exploration & Production (E & P) industry in most developing countries of the world (such as Nigeria) had continued to use Pressure–Temperature–Volume (PVT) correlations developed for crudes of other regions to handle hydrocarbon accounting. Actually, we are in the know that the chemical composition of crude varies from region to region. Therefore, these “industry PVT correlations” as they are so called should really be replaced with region specific PVT correlations. In this paper, two new and improved empirical PVT correlations developed for the Niger Delta crude are presented. These correlations were used to handle hydrocarbon accounting using one of the biggest E & P industries in Nigeria as case study. The results obtained for reservoir performance calculations using the developed correlations show an improvement in reserves estimation for better hydrocarbon accounting.