Material Balance for Oil Reservoirs

• Why do it?
• Basic Principle
• Data available for performing material
balance
• Derivation of the material balance
equation
Uses of material balance
1 Provide insight into the production characteristics
of the reservoir

2 History matching, reservoir drive mechanisms

3 Determination of initial oil in place

Linearized form of material balance equation

used to estimate the initial oil in place (the intercept of the
straight line) - Havlena and Odeh procedure applied in:
“Reservoir characterization, geological modeling and
reservoir simulation of the N’Sano field - G.R. King 1998
 Basic Principle

Expanding
Bubble Gas Cap
point
Liquid shrinking
Undersaturated due to liberation
oil of dissolved gas
p1 > p2 > p3 > p4

Initial gas cap Expanded gas cap

Oil Expanded of oil +

+ dissolved gas
dissolved
Reduction in PV due to
gas increased grain packing
and connate water
Pinit > P expansion
In this lecture we will derive the material balance as a
volumetric balance. Material balance is also a critical step in
modern reservoir simulation where a mass balance of
components within the different fluid phases is generally
performed.
Withdrawl = Expansion of oil+originally
(rb) dissolved gas (B) (rb) Gas cap A
+ Expansion of gascap gas(A)(rb) Oil +
CB
+ Reduction in PV due to dissolved
gas
expansion of connate water
and tighter grain packing(C)(rb) Pinit > P

NOTE that the volume balance is written in terms of fluid at

reservoir conditions or as underground withdrawl and
fluid expansion.
Another interpretation:
1 dV
compressibility ce   or dV  ceVdP
V dP
In this case since dV is production and VdP is volume expansion,
the negative sign is removed: dV  ceVdP i.e. Production is
directly related to the volume expansion of fluids. Parameters
related to the PVT behaviour of fluids and the fluid phases
present are rolled into a equivalent compressibility ce
Data available to do material balance
Production Data
Np = Cummulative oil volume produced (stb)
Rp = Cummulative gas-oil ratio
Cum. volume of gas produced (scf)
=
Cum. volume of oil produced (stb)

PVT properties
Bo = Oil FVF (bbl/STB)
Bg = Gas FVF (cu.ft/SCF)
Bw = Water FVF(bbl/STB)
Cw = Compressibility of water (psi-1)
Rso = Solution Gas-Oil Ratio
Reservoir properties
Cf = Rock Compressibility
Swi = Connate water saturation
Other parameters
N = Initial volume of oil in reservoir (rb)

= V    (1  Swc ) / Boi (stb)

m = Initial gas cap

Initial hydrocarbo n volume of gas gap (rb)
=
Initial hydrocarbo n volume of oil (rb)
These are listed as other parameters because these may
either be known by wireline logs, reservoir modeling etc.
Or they may be the objective of the material balance
computation.
Derivation of the material balance
Expansion of the oil + liberated gas
Two components:

1. Expansion of oil:
Initial Oil = N (stb)
Initial oil at reservoir conditions = N Boi (rb)
Volume of oil at reduced pressure p = N Bo (rb)
Net oil expansion = N(Bo-Boi) (rb)

2. Expansion of liberated gas:

Gas dissolved at initial condition = NRsi (scf)
Gas dissolved at reduced pressure p = NRs (scf)
Liberated gas = N(Rsi-Rs) (scf)
Volume of gas at reservoir conditions = N(Rsi-Rs)Bg (rb)
Volume change due to expansion of oil and liberated gas:
= N(Bo-Boi) + N(Rsi-Rs)Bg (rb)

Let us consider a material balance accounting for just this

volume change term (ignoring gas cap expansion, water
influx or pore volume reduction):

Withdrawl:
Amount of oil produced = Np (stb)
Oil produced at reservoir conditions = NpBo (rb)
Volume of gas produced = NpRp (scf)
Let us look at this quantity of gas at the reduced pressure p
Volume of gas dissolved in Np vol. of oil at p = NpRs (scf)
Remainder gas is the subsurface gas withdrawl in the form of
expanding liberated gas and expanding free gas
Subsurface withdrawl of gas = Np(Rp-Rs) (scf)
Subsurface withdrawl of gas in reservoir bbls = Np(Rp-Rs)Bg (rb)
Therefore, the total subsurface fluid withdrawl :
= NpBo + Np(Rp-Rs)Bg (rb)

Now writing the material balance:

NpBo + Np(Rp-Rs)Bg = N(Bo-Boi) + N(Rsi-Rs)Bg

Np ( Bo  Boi )  ( Rsi  Rs ) Bg
Recovery : 
N B o  ( Rp  Rs ) B g
If the initial oil in place is unknown and the reservoir drive
mechanism is strictly solution gas:
Np   Bo ( Rp  Rs ) Bg 
N (stb)
( Bo  Boi )  ( Rsi  Rs ) Bg

Alternatively denoting the withdrawl term as F and the

expansion term [(Bo-Boi) + (Rsi-Rs)Bg] = Eo, the material
balance becomes:
F = NEo
Material balance : F = NEo
i.e. a plot of F (withdrawl) vs. expansion Eo should be
a straight line with slope N (the initial oil in reservoir).

If the plot is not a straight line - other reservoir drive

mechanisms are present
Remarks:
• The recovery is determined once Np, N and the PVT
properties are known.
• The material balance equation shows no explicit
dependence on pressure. The influence of the pressure
drop is implicitly introduced through the PVT parameters.
• The material balance as derived above is zero dimensional
i.e. the entire reservoir volume is assumed to be
concentrated at a point. The pressure specification is
therefore at that point.
Remarks (cont’d)

• For a undersaturated reservoir, all the produced gas Rp can

be dissolved in the oil at reservoir conditions I.e. Rp=Rs=Rsi
The recovery in such a reservoir is simply:
Np ( Bo  Boi )
Recovery : 
N Bo