Title: A novel model for predicting tight sandstone reservoir permeability

Authors: Lili Sun; Xining Hao; Hongen Dou; Caspar Daniel Adenutsi; Wenli Liu

Addresses: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Patterns and Simulation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Beijing 100101, China ' Research Institute of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, Beijing 100027, China ' Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Beijing 100083, China ' Core and Rock Properties Laboratory, Department of Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Geo-Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana ' Xianhe Oil Production Plant of Shengli Oilfield, Dongying 257000, China

Abstract: In order to solve the problem of low accuracy of permeability prediction in tight sandstone reservoirs, two new parameters namely effective movable fluid saturation and capillary-bound fluid saturation were proposed, to quantitatively evaluate the flow capacity of reservoir fluids based on the analysis of the state of fluid occurrence in pore space. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and high-pressure mercury injection experiments were used to establish the relationships between permeability and the new parameters and a new permeability prediction model was proposed in tight sandstone reservoirs. The method was verified by comparing permeability computed using existing models and measured data from the field. The results showed that the proposed model in this paper gave R² and root mean square error values of 0.839 and 0.0428, respectively, which were better than that given by the SDR and the Coates models. Thus, the proposed model in this research significantly improved the accuracy of permeability prediction in tight sandstone reservoirs. This provides a new method for permeability prediction and field development in tight sandstone reservoirs. [Received: December 20, 2019; Accepted: December 16, 2020]

Keywords: effective movable fluid saturation; capillary-bound fluid saturation; permeability; tight sandstone reservoir; nuclear magnetic resonance; NMR; T_2cutoff.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2022.119345

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2022 Vol.29 No.1, pp.75 - 90

Received: 20 Dec 2019
Accepted: 16 Dec 2020
Published online: 01 Dec 2021 *

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