Summary Convenient access to fluid property data in electronic form is currently not available in many petroleum organizations. Ready access to this information could result in significant cost savings by reducing the need for repeated studies and reducing the scope of new studies by analogous fluid evaluation. This work presents an overview of the development of a new scaleable database application to address these issues. In addition, design and development issues related to database scaleability are discussed. The application, PVT ReCORDTM, is currently undergoing beta-testing by a major commercial laboratory which is creating an online fluid property repository and automating PVT report generation with this tool.
Introduction Reservoir, production, and process simulators require adequate thermodynamic descriptions and models of petroleum fluids in order to perform accurate simulations. Phase behavior prediction applications model the thermodynamic behavior of these fluids based on fluid property (PVT) data obtained from laboratory studies. The PVT reports that contain these data are often difficult to locate since they are often stored in an engineers office rather than in a central location that is easily accessible to other personnel within the same company. As a result, it is not always evident whether a PVT analysis has been performed for a particular field, and another study may be ordered. In addition, PVT reports are typically provided in hard copy format and the data must be manually entered and regressed in order to be used by the various simulators.
A relational database application (PVT ReCORD) has been developed by DB Robinson & Associates Ltd. (DBR) to ensure that PVT data is stored, organized, and tracked in a logical and readily accessible digital format. The application provides data storage in a central location that can be accessed through a corporate wide network. Users are able to query for fluid data in the database that match a specified search criteria, which can eliminate the need for additional PVT studies if a similar fluid is located. In addition, PVT ReCORD is assisting fluid property laboratories in automating the process of report preparation for routine PVT studies.
The application utilizes an intuitive Microsoft WindowsTM graphical user-interface (GUI) and can be used in a stand-alone (desktop or local) environment or scaled upward to a client-server environment. Flexible search, report generation, and data visualization promotes effective data analysis. Since the application adheres to windows computing standards, and provides functionality such as Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) and import/export capabilities with other applications, data sharing is fundamental.
Development Approach Used A two-tiered development approach was used to develop PVT ReCORD. Although the graphical user interface (GUI) tier and database tier appear fully integrated to the end user, in actuality they are segregated. This segregated approach allows for robust, flexible rapid application development and a scaleable database architecture that is able to grow with an organization's information storage needs.