Properties of hydrocarbon gases

The properties of hydrocarbon gases are relatively simple since the parameters of pressure, volume and temperature (PVT) can be related by a single equation. The basis for this equation is an adaptation of a combination of the classical laws of Boyle, Charles and Avogadro. 

The equation of state for an ideal gas, that is a gas in which the volume of the gas molecules is insignificant, attractive and repulsive forces between molecules are ignored, and molecules maintain their energy when they collide with each other. 

The above equation is valid at low pressures where the assumptions hold. However, at typical reservoir temperatures and pressures, the assumptions are no longer valid, and the behaviour of hydrocarbon reservoir gases deviate from the ideal gas law. In practice, it is convenient to represent the behaviour of these real gases by introducing a correction factor known as the gas deviation factor, (also called the dimensionless compressibility factor, or z-factor) into the ideal gas law  

The z-factor must be determined empirically (i.e. by experiment), but this has been done for many hydrocarbon gases, and correlation charts exist for the approximate determination of the z factor at various conditions of pressure and temperature. (Ref. Standing, M.B. and Katz, D.L., Density of natural gases, Trans. AIME, 1942). 

The most important use of the real gas law is to calculate the volume which a subsurface quantity of gas will occupy at surface conditions, since when gas sales contracts are negotiated and gas is subsequently sold it is referred to in volumes at standard conditions of temperature (Tsc) and pressure (Psc). 

---