A new heuristic model for estimating the oil formation volume factor

The necessity of oil formation volume factor (Bo) determination does not need to be greatly emphasized. Different types of reservoir oil have specific conditions which impart the hydrocarbon's major properties, among which is the oil formation volume factor. Therefore, it seems imperative to construct a model capable of estimating the value of oil formation volume factor. Previous studies have resulted in a number of correlations for oil formation volume factor estimation; however, a large portion of them do not provide an acceptable accuracy (at least in some range of data) and cause a huge error at these points. Some others are not flexible enough to be tuned for a specific type of reservoir oil and a comprehensive piece of work does not exist as well in order to compare the applicability of the new models for estimating the oil formation volume factor. In this research, a model based on simulated annealing (SA) has been built in terms of temperature, solution gas-oil ratio, and gravity of oil and gas to predict the oil formation volume factor. This model is compared with the models proposed in the most recent studies, which shows the greater performance of the new method. In addition, in this paper the models of the recent years were compared with each other and their applicability were discussed. Aiming to compare the models, 420 data points were selected and the estimated values of each model for oil formation volume factor were compared with their experimental ones.