Journal of Petroleum Geolegy, vol. 17 (l), January 1994, pp.

111-116 111

AN EMPIRICAL EXPRESSION FOR PERMEABILITY

IN UNCONSOLIDATED SANDS OF THE EASTERN
NIGER DELTA

0.0.Owolabi", T.F. LongJohn** and J.A. Ajienka **

Several correlations for estimating the reservoir permeability from electric well-log
data have previously been developed. Unfortunately, none of these correlations are
universally valid, since each correlation is strongly dependent on the local lithology, and
the properties and distribution of reservoir fluids in the well. There is therefore a need
to develop such a correlation for use in reservoir rocks of the Niger Delta Basin.
Using multiple-regression analysis, the Authors have developed empirical expressions
for permeability in terms of log-derived porosity and irreducible water-saturation f o r
unconsolidated sands in the Eastern Niger Delta. A comparison is made between this new
expression and those previously proposed, using 21 8 sets of field-measured data.
Permeability estimated by the newly- proposed expressiolt is found to be accurate.
The expression could be validfor other oil-producing areas, provided that the reservoir
rock and fluid properties are similar to those of unconsolidated sands in the Eastern
Niger Delta.

INTRODUCTION

Operators involved with exploration, drilling and production operations are increasingly
confronted with complications associated with overpressured (abnormally high fluid-
pressured) formations. This has been found to be true in the Niger Delta Basin.
The Cenozoic Niger Delta Complex area occupies about 30,000 sq. miles of the
Southern Nigerian sedimentary basin onshore. The total complex (onshore-offshore
area) exceeds 100,000 sq. miles (White-nan, 1932).
Details of the geology of the Niger Delta are well-known, and have been discussed by
Authors including Doust and Omatsola, 1989; Whiteman, 1982; Reyment, 1965; Short
and Stauble, 1967; Merki, 1972; Agagu, 1979; Owolabi et al., 1990. They will not be
repeated here. Three formations have been recognised in the subsurface of the Niger
Delta Complex -the Benin, Agbada and Akata Formations; these were deposited under

* Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, USA.

** Dept. ofPetroleum Engineering, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
112 An Empirical Expxssion for Permeability - Eastern Niger Delta

Table 1. Existing permeability correlations.

I Coates-Dumanoir : K = -
352 Q4
s;,

continental, transitional and marine environments, respectively (Short and Stauble, 1967).
Almost all the commercial oil and gas accumulations in the Niger Delta Complex are
located in the Agbada Formation sands, and hydrocarbons are frequently trapped in dip-
closed crestal areas or against one or more faults, especially on their upthrown sides
(Whiteman, 1982). Exploration rarely penetrates as far as the Akata Formation, because
of the absence of commercial oil deposits; it is, however, thought LObe the main source-
rock for the Niger Delta Complex hydrocarbons (Whiteman, 1982).

METHODS

One of the objectives of the present study is to propose an empirical expression for
predicting the permeability of the unconsolidated sands (of Pleistocene to Oligocene age)
in the Eastern Niger Delta from log-derived properties, such as porosity and water
saturation. To accomplish this task, well logging and core analysis data were gathered
from locations scattered around the eastern parts of the Niger Delta Basin - in Delta,
Rivers, Imo and Akwa Ibom States. The data bank consisted of more than 400 such data
sets. Since the study investigates unconsolidated sands, unrepresentative data sets were
discarded, and only 218 data sets were used for further analysis. It is very difficult to
obtain undisturbed samples of unconsolidated sands, and to perform adequate permeability
measurements without causing further sample disturbance.
Since the early 1950s, permeability has been recognised to be a function of porosity
and the irreducible water saturation. That is:

K = f ($, S . )................................................................................................
WI
equation (1)

where K is the permeability in md; Swiis the irreducible water saturation; and $ is percent
porosity. A more general empirical expression was proposed by Wyllie and Rose (1950,
referred to in Schlumberger, 1987; and LongJohn; 1989). It is of the form:

K= GAL
S .
WI
y .................................................................................................. equation (2)

In Eq. 2, C, x and y are constants of correlation. Based on the general expression of Wyllie
and Rose, several Authors have proposed various empirical relationships with which
permeability can be estimated from porosity and irreducible water-saturation from well-
logs. Among these correlations are those of Tixier, Timur, Coates and Coates-Dumanoir
(Schlumberger, 1987), given in Table 1.
 0. 0. Owolabi et al. 113

Table 2. Description of the data.

Number of Uata Yoints=ZlX
Variables
, Permeability, md.
Porosity, fraction
Water Saturation, fraction 0.403 0.401 0.113 0.821

._"

0
100
- (II
50

-
580
0

o w
0 40
0
u-
o m

1.
L
a!

a z
s
O x )

z x ) 10

0 0
0.5 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 4 6 8 101214161820222426283032
0 1
-.
.., Darcy Poroslty,X
Fig. 1. Permeability distribution. Fig. 2. Porosity distribution.

10 15 20 25 30 3 5 4 0 4 5 5 0 55 60 65 70 7 5 8 0
sw, n
Fig. 3. Water-saturation distribution.

A brief description of the data utilised in this investigation is given in Table 2. More
detailed descriptions of the relevant well-log and core analysis properties are shown in
Figs. 1 to 3. More than 60% of the permeability data are in the range of 200 to 1,000md.
Porosity and water-saturation values are scattered in the ranges of 3.9% to 32.3% and
11.3% to 82.4%, respectively.
RESULTS
By applying multiple-regression analysis to the available data-sets from the Eastern
Niger Delta unconsolidated sands, an empirical expression for predicting permeability
was developed. The new correlation for an oil-sand is presented in the equation below:

K = 307.0 + 26,552.0 Qz- 34,540.0 (+, Swi)z.................................................. equation (3)

114 An Empirical Expression for Permeability - Eastern Niger Delta

1000
0
E
B
6
B
100

-E!
n
Y
10

Fig. 4. Cross-plot for permeability (using this study's correlation).

For a gas sand, it is generally assumed that the permeability is about 10%of the value
predicted from oil sands under similar conditions (Schlumberger, 1987; Hilchie, 1982).
The equation is:

K = 30.7 + 2,655 4*- 3,454 (Q,SWi)*

.............................................................. equation (4)

Graphical means help to visualise the accuracy of a correlation. For this reason, the
cross-plot of predicted versus measured values for the permeability correlation (Eq. 3)
is presented in Fig. 4.Most of the points plotted for this study's correlation fall very close
to the perfect correlation of the 45" line.
To further simplify the use of the newly-developed correlations, permeability correlation
charts (Figs. 5 and 6) were constructed from Eqs. 3 and 4,respectively. For a brief
description of the use of the charts, it may be assumed that for a given oil sand, the values
of the porosity and the irreducible water saturation are available from well logs. The
procedure for using the chart is to start from the given value of porosity on the horizontal
scale and then move vertically upward from this point until the line for the known
irreducible water-saturation value is intersected. From this marked point, move horizontally
to the left until the permeability scale is met and the value of the predicted permeability
in millidarcies can then be read.

COMPARISON OF THE CORRELATIONS

The statistical parameters used to determine the relative accuracy of the correlations
are given in Table 3. The present correlation (Eq. 3, Fig. 5 ) for oil sands and the existing
correlations are tested against field data. Table4 gives a summary of the statistical results,
and it would appear that the correlations of Tixier, Timur, Coates and Coates-Dumanoir
greatly underpredict the permeabilities. The correlation derived in the present study gives
the best performance, on the basis of the lowest values of the average percentage deviation
(APD), absolute average percent deviation (AAPD) and standard deviation (SD).
 0. 0. Owolabi et al. 115
5000

4500 0.10 g
0.20 '5
0
4000 0.30
L

0.40 c?
,3500 .-0
E 0.50
L
,3000 a
.-
I
0.60
c
$
i2500
k
I
E2000 6
Q
0.70 3,
p1500
1000

500
0
, I
4 . : 0
Porosity,fraction
Fig. 5. Permeability correlation for unconsolidated oil sands from the Eastern Niger Delta.

500
450

400
,350
E
,400
.-
I

z250
i200

El50
100

50

0 0 0 . 4
Porosity,fraction
Fig. 6. Permeability correlation for unconsolidated gas sands from the Eastern Niger Delta.

Table 3. Statistical parameters used for comparison.

I
SD =
n
.\In f: ( PD, )2 - I 2 PD, I'
,=I lil
116 An Empirical Expression for Permeability - Eastern Niger Delta

Table 4. Statistical results for the data. APD: Average percent deviation;
AAPD: absolute average percent deviation; SD: Standard deviation.
Results
Correlations APD II AAPD II SD

I
Tixier
Timur
Coates
Coates-Dumanoir
Present Study
11 -93.843
-92.122
-90.224
-84.174
-1.322
11 11 1I
93.843
92.122
90.224
86.964
10.180
11.216
13.030
17.931
35.444
11.090

CONCLUSIONS
1 . Correlations for predicting the permeability of unconsolidated sands from the
Eastern Niger Delta Basin from log-derived rock properties have been developed in the
form of empirical expressions and charts.
2. Deviations from the measured core-analysis permeability values indicated in the
form of average percentage relative errors, average absolute percentage relative errors
and percentage standard deviations, were lower for this new correlation than for predictions
based on the correlations of Tixier. Timur, Coates and Coates-Dumanoir.
3. The permeability correlations can be ranked in the following order with respect to
their accuracy: the present study, Tixier, Timur, Coates and Coates-Dumanoir.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Authors wish to express their gratitude to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corpn.
and its affiliated companies, and the major service oil companies in Nigeria for supplying
the data used in this study. The Pennsylvania State University and the University of Port
Harcourt are acknowledgedfor financiallysupportingone of the Authors. Useful comments
by the Journal's reviewer, Dr. G. D. Hobson, are acknowledged.
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