Permeability Prediction for Carbonate Rocks using a Modified Flow Zone Indicator Method

Ahmed J. Mahmood; Mohammed A. Jubair

doi:10.14500/aro.11314

Ahmed J. Mahmood Department of Petroleum Engineering, Al-Farabi University College, Baghdad, Iraq https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5226-1240
Mohammed A. Jubair Department of Computer Technical Engineering, College of Information Technology, Imam Ja’afar Al-Sadiq University, Al-Muthanna, 66002, Iraq https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6719-2922

Keywords: Cementation factor, FZI, Hydraulic flow unit, Modified FZI, Permeability prediction

Abstract

Carbonate reservoir rocks are usually heterogeneous, so it is not an easy task to establish a relation between porosity and permeability in these types of reservoir rocks. First, Kozney and Kozney-carmen formulas were used to establish these relations. Later, the flow zone indicator (FZI) method was introduced, which was widely used to find such a relation since it shows better results than the two former methods. In this work, the classical FZI method and a modified form of the FZI method are utilized to identify the hydraulic flow units and rock quality index to predict permeability. In this FZI method, the cementation factor (m) was introduced in calculating the value of FZI. The data collected from core analysis of the cored intervals in the Tanuma and Khasib formations were used as a database for this work. The classical and the modified FZI methods were applied using the database to predict core permeability. The value of the cementation factor was tuned to get a better match between the predicted permeability resulting from applying the modified method and the measured permeability values. Results show that the correlation coefficients resulting from applying the modified FZI method are closer to unity compared with that resulting from the classical FZI method. Cementation factor (m) of m = 3 for Tanuma formation and m = 3 for Khasib formation are the best values used with the modified FZI method. The modified FZI method shows a regression factor of 0.9986 for Tanuma and 0.9942 for Khasib formation.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Ahmed J. Mahmood, Department of Petroleum Engineering, Al-Farabi University College, Baghdad, Iraq

Ahmed J. Mahmood is a Lecturer at the department of petroleum engineering, Al-Farabi University College, Iraq. He got the B.Sc. degree in petroleum engineering, the M.Sc. degree in petroleum engineering (reservoir engineering) and the Ph.D. degree in petroleum engineering from petroleum engineering department, Baghdad University. His researches interest are in numerical simulation, artificial intelligence application in reservoir engineering and rock wettability measurement. Dr. Ahmed is a member of the society of petroleum engineers (SPE) in USA.

Mohammed A. Jubair, Department of Computer Technical Engineering, College of Information Technology, Imam Ja’afar Al-Sadiq University, Al-Muthanna, 66002, Iraq

Mohammad A. Jubair is a lecturer at the department of computer Technical engineering, College of information Technology, Imam Ja’afar Al-Sadiq University, Iraq. He got the B.Sc. degree in computer engineering from Al-Marrif university, Iraq in 2012, the M.Sc. degree from the computer science networks department Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in 2017, and the Ph.D. degree from the faculty of computer science and information technology, University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia(UTHM)in 2021. His researches interest include software engineering, artificial intelligence, communication systems, networking and machine learning.

References

Abed, A.A., 2014. Hydraulic flow units and permeability prediction in a carbonate reservoir, Southern Iraq from well log data using non-parametric correlation. International Journal of Enhanced Research in Science Technology and Engineering, 3(1), pp.480-486.

Alobaidi, D.A., 2016. Permeability prediction in one of Iraqi carbonate reservoir using hydraulic flow units and neural networks. Iraqi Journal of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, 17(1), pp.1-11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31699/IJCPE.2016.1.1

Amaefule, J.O., Altunbay, M., Tiab, D., Kersey, D.G., and Keelan, D.K., 1993. Enhanced Reservoir Description: Using Core and Log Data to Identify Hydraulic (Flow) Units and Predict Permeability in Uncored Intervals/Wells. In: SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, OnePetro. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2523/26436-MS

Barach, B., Jaafar, M., Gaafar, G., Agi, A., Junin, R., Sidek, A., Gbadamosi, A., Yakasai, F., Oseh, J., and Gbonhibor, J., 2022. Development and Identification of Petrophysical Rock Typing for Effective Reservoir Characterization. In: SPE Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition, Onepetro.

Carman, P.C., 1937. Fluid flow through granular beds. Transactions of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, 15, pp.150-166.

Carman, P.C., 1938. Fundamental principles of industrial filtration. Transactions of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, 16, pp.168-188.

Davies, D.K., and Vessell, R.K., 1996. Identification and Distribution of Hydraulic Flow Units in a Heterogeneous Carbonate Reservoir: North Robertson Unit, West Texas. In: SPE Permian Basin Oil and Gas Recovery Conference, Paper Number SPE-35183, SPE. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2523/35183-MS

Haghighi, M.B., Shabaninejad, M., and Afsari, K., 2011. A permeability predictive model based on hydraulic flow unit for one of Iranian carbonate tight gas reservoir. In: SPE Middle East Unconventional Resources Conference and Exhibition, Paper Number SPE-142183, SPE. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2118/142183-MS

Kadhim, F.S., Samsuri, A., and Kamal, A., 2013. Areview in correlations between cementation factor and carbonate rocks properties. Life Science Journal, 10(4), pp.2451-2458.

Kozeny, J., 1927. Über Kapillare Leitung des Wassers im Boden. Vol. 136. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sitz der Wien, pp.271-306.

Ministry of Oil, 1985. Routine Core analysis (RCA) for Wells (EB-35). Reservoir Solutions (RES), United States.

Nooruddin, H.A., and Hossain, M.E., 2012. Modified Kozeny-correlation for enhanced hydraulic flow unit characterization. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 80, pp.107-115. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2011.11.003

Onuh, H.M., David, O.O., and Onuh, C.Y., 2017. Modified reservoir quality indicator methodology for improved hydraulic flow unit characterization using the normalized pore throat methodology (Niger Delta field as case study). Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology, 7, pp.409-416. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13202-016-0297-8

Riazi, Z., 2018. Application of integrated rock typing and flow units identification methods for an Iranian carbonate reservoir. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 160, pp.483-497. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2017.10.025

Shun, N., Yuzuru, Y., and Hide, S., 2018. Modified expression of Kozeny-Carman equation based on semilog-sigmoid function. Soils and Foundations, 58, pp.1350-1357. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2018.07.011