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Physical Properties of Oils: Chemical Compositions

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Physical properties of Oils

Chemical compositions of crude oils


are the principal determinants of their
physical properties

Specific Gravity of oil


Range 0.73 slightly above 1.0
Paraffin-base oils light
Asphalt-base oils invariably heavy
Earlier, gravity was expressed in degrees of the
European Beaum scale, read directly on a
hydrometer at 15.6C (60F); degree goes up as the
density decreases
i.e., A high gravity oil is not a heavy oil but a light oil
B = (140 / ) 130

Specific Gravity of oil


Later, B has been replaced by API scale
API value = (141.5 / ) 131.5
So that water under STP conditions becomes
10 API
Relation between API & B
API value = (1.01071 x B) 0.10714
Presently, the measured quantity is
Density Relative to Water Kgdm-3

Specific Gravity of oil


Relation between API gravity & relative density

Specific Gravity of oil


By general convention
Oils with API gravities > 30 light
30 - 22 medium
< 22 heavy
< 10 extra-heavy
Worldwide average value is ~33.3 API
Most favoured grade of crude oil is ~37 API
Oils heavier than 12 API difficult to be
distinguished on the basis of gravity;
viscosity provides a more useful
discriminant
Oils lighter than ~50 API not really oils but
rather condensates / distillates

Specific Gravity of oil

Specific Gravity of oil


~37 API Middle East, Mid-continent, Appalachian
provinces (USA), Alberta, Libya, North Sea, etc.
crudes
>40 API large quantities in Algeria, south-eastern
Australia, Indonesia, Andes, etc. crudes
Very heavy crudes California, Mexico, Venezuela,
Sicily, etc.
<6 API + ~8 % S some crudes from fractured
Miocene reservoir rocks in California (Santa Maria
Basin)

Viscosity of oil
Viscosity is the internal friction of a fluid, causing its
resistance to change of form. It is the ratio of stress to
shear per unit time; shear in liquid is not constant, but
is proportional to time
Viscosity = Force x Distance / Area x Velocity
MLT-2L / L2 LT-1 = ML-1T-1
CGS Unit Poise
Conventional Unit centipoise
[1 cP = 10-2 Poise, viscosity of water at 20C (68F)]
SI Unit mPas [1 cP 1 mPas]

Viscosity of oil
Saybolt Universal Second (SUS) number of
seconds needed for a steel ball to roll through a
standard volume of the fluid
SUS = viscosity in cP x 4.635 / relative density
Typical oil viscosities measured in SUS at STP are
from ~1000 to 50

Viscosity of oil
Viscosity vary directly with densities
Hence, viscosities of oil are a function of the number
of C atoms and of the amount of gas dissolved in
the oil

Viscosity of oil
Viscosities of light oils < 30 mPas
Typical values between 5.0 & 0.6 (gasoline) mPas
Heavy asphaltic oils 50,000 mPas (Miocene oil in the
Bolivar coastal field in western Venezuela)
Very heavy oil ~1,00,000 mPas (Cold Lake, Alberta)
>106 mPas (Athabasca)
HC having viscosities > 10,000 mPas are known as natural
tars

Pour Point
A useful indicator of viscosity of crude oils; the lowest temperature
at which the crude flows under prescribed, controlled conditions
Pour points > 40C (more than 100F) are relatively common among
crudes having high contents of paraffin wax
Middle eastern and African crudes flow at ~ - 36C
Oils with high pour points because of high wax contents have a
shiny appearance & are associated with formation waters with low
salinity
When oils with high pour point rise in the traps, their temperatures
are lowered and the waxes crystalise out, forming a residue of high
molecular weight paraffins & oil becomes lighter
Prolific basins in which the original oils were paraffinic and derived
oils, in younger strata are asphaltic include the Carpathian Basin
(Romania), & Niger delta basin (off Africa)

Pour Point
Both paraffinic & asphaltic crudes may undergo
prolific volatilization through surface or near
surface alteration that they become totally
dried-up, so viscous that they effectively solids.
The drying-up process is INSPISSATION

Pour Point
Very waxy crudes
Uinta Basin (Western USA), Anaco trend (Eastern
Venezuela) Reconcavo Basin (Brasil), Mendoza Basin
(Argentina), Beatrice field (off Eastern Scottland),
Mangyshlak field (east of the Caspian Sea), several
fields in the Sirte Basin (Libya & Sudan); Remarkable
proportion of the fields in young sandstone reservoirs
in Eastern Asia & Australia, (many oils from West India
& Upper Assam Basin of North Eastern India contain 10
15 % wax), most crudes from China, Sumatra, and the
Gippsland off-shore basin in Australia.

Colours & RI of oils


Paraffinic oils are commonly light in colour yellow
to brown by transmitted light, & green (of automobile
engine oil) by reflected light
Asphalt-base oils are commonly brown to black;
RI of oils vary with the relative density, between 1.42
and 1.48 for most of the oils
Lighter oils Lower indices
At lower temperature Lower indices
Within any one molecular weight range
RI increase from paraffins through naphthenes,
to aromatics

Volume
Oil in reservoir contains dissolved gas, and the volume
of the solution depends upon the
formation gas-oil ratio
reservoir pressure
The gas that may be dissolved in oil under increasing
pressure increases the volume of the solution until the
saturation pressure (bubble point) is reached after
which the volume decreases with increased pressure

Volume
0.5 0.8 barrel of gas-free oil on the ground (stock
tank oil) may represent 1 barrel of oil in the
reservoir at the saturation pressure
The volume of liquid petroleum at constant pressure
increases with increasing temperature, but at a
much lower rate than gases
The solubility of gas in oil increases linearly with
pressure in accordance with Henrys law.
Heavy crudes have much less capacity to hold gas

Fluorescence
Fluorescence is observed under UV radiation (2537
3650 )
All oils exhibit more or less fluorescence (bloom)
Aromatic oils most fluorescent
Fluorescent colours of crudes range continuously from
yellow through green to blue
Fluorescence is used in the logging of wells to locate
oil showings in the cores, cuttings, and drilling mud
Fluorescence rapidly reduces by aging; this helps in
differentiating fresh oil from oil previously caught in the
drilling mud

Optical Activity
Most crudes have optical activity (the power to
rotate the plane of polarization of polarized
light)
Optical activity pertains to the presence of
cholesterin (cholesterol), an alcohol (C26H45OH)
Measured by a polariscope in degrees/mm
Average range 0 1.2 degrees
Plane rotated to the right dextrorotary
left levorotary

Odor
Paraffins, naphthenes, aromatics, S, H2S,
N-compounds have characteristics odor

Flash & Burning Point


These are the measurements of the hazard
involved in handling and storing petroleum and
petroleum products
Flash point Temperature at which the
vapours rising off the surface of the heated oil
ignites with a flash
Burning point At higher temperature ignition
and burning with a steady flame at the surface

Coefficient of expansion
For an increase in temperature of 1F for crude
oils, the coefficient of expansion varies between
0.00036 0.00096
For most crude oils 0.00040 to 0.00065
Average coefficient of expansion
Pennsylvania crude oils 0.000840
Baku crude oils 0.000817
Heavier crude oils (lower API) lower
coefficient & vice-versa

Calorific value

Calorific value of the crude oil decreases as


the specific gravity increases

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