Predicting Bubble Point Pressure and Oil Formation Volume Factor by Explainable and Reproducible Support Vector Regression-Based Models from Multi-Regional PVT Data
Abstract
Accurate estimation of reservoir pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) properties underpins reserves evaluation, reservoir simulation, production forecasting, and surface facility design. Bubble point pressure (Pbp) and oil formation volume factor (Bob) are especially critical because they control hydrocarbon phase behaviour, fluid expansion, and depletion performance. Laboratory PVT analysis is the most reliable but often costly, slow, and unavailable. Empirical correlations are more practical; however, they suffer from regional bias, limited calibration ranges, and poor representation of nonlinear fluid behaviour. This study develops explainable, reproducible support vector regression (SVR) models to predict Pbp and Bob using four common descriptors: solution gas-oil ratio (Rs), gas specific gravity (γg), API oil gravity (γAPI), and reservoir temperature (TR). From 953 global PVT samples, 797 were preprocessed, normalised, and split using hold-out and k-fold cross-validation. Linear-kernel SVR delivered high accuracy: for Pbp, (R2 = 0.9826, R = 0.9913, RMSE = 0.0586, MSE = 0.0034); for Bob, (R2 = 0.9494, R = 0.9744, RMSE = 0.0882, MSE = 0.0078). To overcome the “black-box” limitation, the SVR models are fully specified using their support vectors, dual coefficients, and bias terms, enabling independent reproduction and implementation. Perturbation-based explainability shows that Rs is the dominant predictor for both properties, accounting for 71.87% of Pbp and 76.76% of Bob, consistent with thermodynamic expectations. Compared with widely used empirical correlations, the new models perform better on a multi-regional dataset. Thus, the explainable SVR models offer a transparent, accurate, and practical tool for reservoir PVT estimation, combining predictive performance with engineering interpretability.
Keywords
- PVT Properties
- Bubble Point Pressure
- Oil Formation Volume Factor
- Support Vector Regression
- Explainable Artificial Intelligence
Supporting Institution
Project Number
Ethical Statement
Thanks
References
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Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
Reservoir Engineering
Journal Section
Research Article
Authors
Anietie Okon
*
0000-0003-1744-3310
Nigeria
Moses Ekpenyong
0000-0001-6774-5259
Nigeria
Kilaliba Tugwell
0009-0005-4698-0723
Nigeria
Philip Asuquo
0000-0001-8084-3427
Nigeria
Early Pub Date
September 20, 2026
Publication Date
September 30, 2026
Submission Date
June 24, 2026
Acceptance Date
July 3, 2026
Published in Issue
Year 2026 Volume: 13 Number: 3