APvT

Over the past 5 years APT has worked to build the industries first, detailed PVT database covering the North Sea, Norwegian Sea & Barents Sea.

The format of this database is comprehensive and includes ~220 data columns covering both PVT & compositional information. At present the database includes ~7300 entries (typically relating to a single PVT report but sometimes a single PVT report will include multiple samples each captured as a separate row).

Additional databases have also been compiled for offshore Eastern Newfoundland and most recently the Gulf of Mexico.

The application of PVT data to deepen the understanding of a petroleum system is not new and was proposed more than 20 years ago (e.g. di Primio et al. 1998), however the application of this data type has largely remained in the engineering disciplines, most likely because of (a) lack of readily accessible, regional databases of this datatype and (b) a lack of integration between the geoscientific and engineering disciplines.

Recently He & Murray (2019) have advocated an approach, termed top down petroleum systems analysis, that they define as the interpretation of fluids (accumulations, shows, seeps, and dry holes), their bulk properties, including PVT data (GOR/API/Psat etc) and their distribution in the geological context and PT space to constrain the petroleum system and allow better informed inferences on the location and properties of yet-to-find hydrocarbons.

The geoscientific data released by the OGA provides opportunities to view a range of data types, at scale, across the UK sector of the North Sea. A spatially referenced and easily manipulated PVT database for the UK sector of the North Sea has been created which allows:

• Visualisation and integration of data PVT type data at the basin scale – providing deep insight to sourcing and migration processes
• Easily accessed PVT analogues
• Physical property correlations
• Input data for prospect phase risking