ABSTRACT
Numerical finite-difference simulation has become a powerful tool to assist on field management guiding and ranking different development alternatives. While pressure, volume, and temperature (PVT) laboratory and field observation tests may be used directly to estimate initial volumes and give insight on the flow behavior, use of equation of state (EOS) is the industry standard for projects that involve significant compositional changes and/or deal with complex fluid behavior. The former uses tables to represent the variation of PVT properties with pressure and the latter uses an EOS to account for pressure and compositional changes. Upon selecting, calibrating, and testing the EOS and/or black oil PVT model, the next stage is to validate the numerical model that predicts fluid properties with field data. Oil viscosity should also be validated using field observations, including live and dead oil to ensure that mobilities in the numerical model are in line with the reservoir conditions.
