London Petrophysical Society

Permeability Theory and Applications

Tuesday 14th March 2023
Geological Society, Burlington House, London
09:00-17:00 (London GMT)

Abstracts
Start Time End Time Name Company Talk Title
09:15 09:30 Registration
09:30 09:40 Alina Khmelevskaya LPS LPS VP Seminars - Introduction

A Permeability Model from the Integration of Capillary Pressure, Electrical

09:40 10:15 Scott Dodge Virtual Petrophysics
Properties and NMR to Predict Hydraulic Rock Pore Types

Ahmed Montasser, Evaluating Log-Derived Permeability and Reservoir Producibility using

10:15 10:50 Halliburton
Mohamed Fouda Azimuthally Oriented Logging-While-Drilling Formation Testing

The Use of a Formation Tester to Characterize Permeability and Vertical

10:50 11:25 Gavin Sibbald Baker Hughes
Communication Across Stylolite Zones in a Carbonate Reservoir - Case Study

11:25 11:55 Comfort Break

The Effects of Sorting, Compaction & Cementation on Porosity and
11:55 12:30 Paul Glover University of Leeds
Permeability

Steady State versus Unsteady State versus Klinkenberg Gas Permeability –

12:30 13:05 Jules Reed Premier Corex
Large Scale Study

13:05 13:40 Panel Discussion

13:40 14:40 Lunch

14:40 15:15 Alan Johnson Integrated Petrophysical Solutions Effective Permeability – How Do You Calculate It?

15:15 15:50 Jules Reed Premier Corex Relative Permeability: An Underrepresented Property

Multi-Scale Pore Network Modelling of Multiphase Flow in Heterogeneous

15:50 16:25 Sajjad Foroughi Imperial College
Porous Media with Incorporation of Unresolved Pore Space
16:25 16:40 Jack Willis LPS LPS President - Closing Remarks
17:00 Networking Reception in the Library

Register via the LPS website: https://lps.org.uk/events/

A PERMEABILITY MODEL FROM THE INTEGRATION OF CAPILLARY PRESSURE, ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES AND NMR TO
PREDICT HYDRAULIC ROCK PORE TYPES
SCOTT DODGE, VIRTUAL PETROPHYSICS

A permeability model has been developed that uses capillary pressure with the integration of electrical
property measurements using the concept of the Representative Elemental Volume (REV) model. The REV
model is a simple application of Effective Medium Theory that is based on the averaging of multiple values
that make up a composite material.

The same capillary pressure measurements are used to derive the contribution of each pore size to the total
permeability of the rock. A hydraulic Rock Pore Type (RPT) model is established using the mean hydraulic
radius of the pore system to quantify the effective hydraulic radii that ultimately determines the absolute
permeability. The RPT model uses an industry standard classification system to characterise the pore system
using Mega > 10 microns, Macro 2 to 10 microns, Meso 0.5 to 2 microns, Micro 0.1 to 0.5 microns, and Nano
< 0.1 microns.

To extend the capillary pressure hydraulic RPT model to NMR core measurements, T2 distributions are
converted to length scale in microns by using the relationship of surface-to-volume, pore shape factor and
pore constriction factor. This conversion from T2 time to length scale permits direct application of the RPT
model developed from capillary pressure to both core and log NMR.

AUTHOR BIO
Scott Dodge is the Founder and Managing Director of Virtual Petrophysics, a Petrophysics technology
consulting company providing technical services to Oil and Gas operators in Africa, Middle East, and
Australasia since 2013.
Previously he worked with ExxonMobil over a 30-year career as a Formation Evaluation Specialist in 19
countries and 27 basins with extensive petrophysics experience in both clastic and carbonate reservoirs of
North America, West Africa, Middle East, Europe, and Australasia. He has specialisation in providing
petrophysics inputs to static and dynamic reservoir models, rock pore typing, NMR applications, special core
analysis, cased-hole surveillance, and drill well programming and evaluation.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Kansas State University and Master of Science
in Petroleum Engineering from University of Southern California.
Scott has served the SPWLA in various capacities as President of the Australia, Nigeria, and Malaysia chapters
and Regional Director of Africa/Middle East, as well as Distinguished Lecturer from 1996 to 1998. He is a
member of the SPE, SPWLA, SCA and AAPG.
 Evaluating Log-Derived Permeability and Reservoir Producibility using Azimuthally Oriented Logging-
While-Drilling Formation Testing

Mohamed Fouda, Ahmed Taher, Ahmed Montasser (Halliburton)

1. Objectives/Scope
Permeability is a fundamental petrophysical attribute required to evaluate recoverable reserves and design
an appropriate field-development strategy. Logging tools do not measure absolute permeability, minimizing
uncertainty in the evaluation of log-derived permeabilities remains one of the most critical petrophysical
challenges in the oil industry. Formation testing provides discrete stations at which fluid mobility can be
calculated and used as calibration points for log-derived permeability. This study shows how oriented
logging-while- drilling (LWD) formation testers have been successfully utilized to evaluate permeability
variations in multiple formations and hole profiles.

2. Methods, Procedures, Process

The workflow for log-derived permeability predictions is based on empirical relationships using NMR,
acoustic, and high-resolution imaging tool measurements. These are normalized in an integrated multi-
disciplinary approach using core, well test, production logs, and formation-tester mobility data where
available. LWD testers are especially useful in high angle and horizontal wells where other techniques are
not practical to utilize and where real-time while-drilling data can be used to adjust the well path into the
“west spot”.

Traditionally, formation tester tools have been used to obtain single pressure and mobility values at each
test station. LWD formation tester can be oriented azimuthally to help evaluate permeability anisotropy and
provide a better understanding of the sources of permeability heterogeneity.

3. Results, Observations, Conclusions

Mobility calculated from LWD formation testing results were successfully utilized to evaluate permeability of
multiple reservoirs where the results had showed good correlation with production logging. Additionally,
mobility data was successfully used to calibrate NMR permeability and finding the suitable cutoff for
estimating the volume of the movable fluid from NMR data. Variations in the oriented LWD formation tester
measurements at each depth station also exhibited favorable correlations to azimuthal changes observed in
the LWD high-resolution microresistivity images. Detailed image analysis further helped to understand the
mechanism that seems to govern the azimuthal permeability profile. Combination of oriented LWD formation-
tester and other log-derived permeability indicators aided the real-time well placement decisions. Operational
considerations to maximize data quality rely on an optimized bottomhole assembly (BHA) design, accurate
depth control, and orientation techniques based on best practices and lessons learned.

4. Novelty/Significance/Additive Information
This paper presents an integrated approach for real-time permeability evaluation combining oriented LWD
formation-tester data in conjunction with multiple log-based permeability indicators.

Authors Biography:

Mohamed Fouda is a Geoscience Advisor in Halliburton, Sperry Drilling. Mohamed worked as LWD field engineer and operations
supervisor before moving to the geoscience domain in Saudi Arabia supporting LWD services. He has a Bachelor of Science in
Electronics Engineering and is a member of SPE and SPWLA.

Ahmed Taher is the Geoscience Domain Champion and Technical Team lead at Halliburton Sperry Drilling in Saudi Arabia. Ahmed
began his career as M/LWD field engineer before moving to operations Coordinator and later LWD Technical Advisor. Ahmed holds a
Bachelor of Petroleum Engineering from Cairo University and Masters Degree from Heriot- Watt University.
The Use of a Formation Tester to Characterize Permeability and Vertical Communication Across
Stylolite Zones in a Carbonate Reservoir - Case Study

Abstract
Quantifying the vertical permeability and sealing capability of the stylolite zones in a Middle East
carbonate reservoir is critically important for the enhanced recovery, water coning, perforation
policy and well-placement choices. A wireline formation tester was used to perform four vertical
interference tests (VIT) in a newly drilled well. The objective was to obtain permeability,
permeability anisotropy and vertical communication across the stylolite zones. The formation
tester was configured with a straddle packer, acting as a source of fluid flow, and two observation
probes that recorded the pressure disturbances originating from the source. The formation testers
were strategically placed so that the stylolite zones were located between the two observation
probes. The simultaneous analysis of pressure transients from the straddle packer and the first
probe provided the permeability and the permeability anisotropy of the main reservoir units. The
vertical communication across the stylolite zones was evaluated by analysing the pressure
transients from the second probe.
The results of the four VITs indicate varying degrees of vertical permeability across the stylolite
zones, implying none have the sealing capability for fluid flow. Reservoir simulation studies were
performed to evaluate the impact of stylolite sealing capacity on field performance. Results show
that the model cannot match the actual production and pressure data if the stylolite zones were
sealing. Therefore, this confirms that the stylolite zones in this field have no sealing capacity as
shown by the VIT test results. The result of this study concludes that VITs can provide valuable
dynamic data for reservoir characterization and could be extended in a field-wide approach to
evaluate the lateral continuity of the vertical permeability variation across the stylolite zones. The
results will be used in determining the perforation and well-placement policy and modelling the
enhanced oil recovery studies.

The talk today will cover this case study and go through the pre – job planning and operational
order of performing a mini – DST and VIT successfully.

GAVIN JG SIBBALD graduated with a MSci (Hons) in Geoscience from the

University of London and PDip in Reservoir Engineering from Heriot – Watt
University. With 20yrs of industry experience, having worked offshore as wireline
field engineer in the Norway and UK sector, with his current role as North
Sea/Europe Reservoir Engineering Discipline Lead for Baker Hughes, overseeing
wireline and LWD formation testing and sampling operations.
 The effects of sorting, compaction & cementation on porosity and
permeability
Glover, P.W.J.1, Luo, M. 1, 2 & Lorinczi, P. 1
1 School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
2 School of Geophysics and Geomatics, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

Just how much do sorting, cementation and compaction control the porosity and permeability of rocks?
In this work we start with making extremely accurate porosity and permeability measurements on binary
grain mixtures, arriving at good agreement between them and theoretical results. These seemingly simple
experiments are difficult to carry out with the degree of precision needed to test the models. We have
developed a methodology allowing porosity and permeability to be measured to within ± 4.415%
and ± 4.989% (at a flow rate of 5.13 cm3/s) of each value, respectively. The newly developed theoretical
framework includes both the interstitiation mixing process and several replacement processes.
<< Figure 1. Theoretical and
experimental variation of
permeability as a function of
volume fraction of the smaller
particles for a large difference in
particle sizes.

A major result of this

work is that the theoretical
models describing these
two processes are
independent of grain size
and grain shape. The latter
of these two findings infers
that the models developed
in this work are applicable to any shape of grain or type of packing, providing that a representative
porosity of each size of grain pack is known independently, either experimentally or theoretically.
Experimental validation has shown that the newly developed relationships for porosity described
measurements of porosity for near-ideal binary mixtures extremely well, confirming that porosity is
always reduced by binary mixing, and that the degree of reduction depends upon the size of the ratio
between the two grain sizes.
Calculation of permeability from the packing model has also been carried out. Six different
permeability estimation methods have been used. It was found that the most accurate representations of
the experimental permeability were obtained (1) when the exact RGPZ method was used with the
porosity mixing models developed in this work, and (2) when the exact RGPZ method was used with the
weighted geometric mean to calculate a representative grain size. For mixtures where there is a large
difference in grain sizes, permeability (k) varies little for the ranges of mixtures from 28% to 100% of small
grains (about 4k), only increasing significantly as the fraction of small grains falls below 28% to zero (to
2 orders of magnitude in k) because the small grains then only partially occupy the space between the
large grains. For mixtures of grains of similar sizes, the situation is remarkably different. The variation in
permeability for small grain fractions between 100% and about 28% is much amplified (2 orders of
magnitude in k), while the increase in permeability as the fraction of small grains falls from about 28% to
zero is similar to the other case, and perhaps slightly less pronounced (about 1.5 orders of magnitude in
k). This counterintuitive behaviour is important for the interpretation of how sorting affects permeability,
implying a greater spread of permeabilities for rock composed of grains with a small difference in grain
size.
Generalisation to a large number of grain sizes is difficult, but a new set of solutions for 3 and 4 grain
sizes indicates that each additional size of grains has a progressively smaller effect. This implies that most
of the variation is captured in the binary mixture without the need to take account of the full distribution
of grain sizes. Modelling with process driven sedimentation models in three dimensions has been carried
out. These models mimic the sedimentation process and subsequent compaction and diagenetic
cementation. Models using a progressively less well-sorted set of mixtures shows clearly that although
there is a clear decrease in porosity and increase in specific surface area (m2/m3) with little change in
fractal dimension, it is the imposition of cementation and compaction that presents the greatest reduction
in porosity, connectedness and permeability.

Prof Paul W.J. Glover

Chair of Petrophysics, Institute of Applied Geoscience, University of

Leeds, UK
p.w.j.glover@leeds.ac.uk

Paul Glover has been the Leader of the Petrophysics Research Group at the University of Leeds and the
manager of its petrophysics laboratory since 2012. He is also the Deputy Chair of the University’s AREA
Research Ethics Committee. He has over 35 years of experience in petrophysics at 7 universities on 3
continents, and in industry (primarily BP).

Paul Glover counts amongst his achievements over 100 scientific papers collaborating with over 100
scientific and industrial colleagues which have been cited over 4000 times. His interests have varied widely
over the petrophysical and geophysical spectrum, including the electrical conductivity of the deep crust,
geomechanics and numerical modelling and experiment of the effect of rough fractures on fluid flow. He
was one of the initial drivers of our present theoretical understanding of surface conduction, leading to
the development of new ways of understanding and using Archie’s laws, their extension to two
conducting and ultimately n-conducting phases, and hence to new RGPZ methods to predict permeability
and for the prediction of pore and pore-throat sizes from grain sizes, and vice versa. He developed the
theory and methods for measuring the static and time-varying electro-kinetic properties of rocks and the
use of machine learning in petrophysics. Recently he and his researchers have been active in carbonate
petrophysics developing quantitative diagenesis (QD) methods for understanding the type, degree and
timing of diagenesis, as well as the impact of injecting CO2 into reservoirs for EOR and CCS. Most recently
his petrophysics team have been involved in both the development of new Advanced Fractal Reservoir
Models and the effect of climate change on permafrost thawing and the subsequent release of radon, CO2
and methane.

He was the founder and first director of the Energy, Resources and the Environment (ERE) Division of the
European Geoscience Union, bringing the interface between geoscience, environmental protection and
energy policy a European home for the first time. This year he is convening a session under ERE entitled
“Redeploying existing oil and gas technology and modelling to benefit the development of sustainable energy
resources”. He has acted as non-executive director on a number of company boards and is responsible for
several pieces of software in current use.
Steady state versus unsteady state versus Klinkenberg gas permeability –
large scale study

In 2007, Florence et al reviewed various methods of predicting the gas slippage factor, b, and hence,
Klinkenberg corrected permeability from single-pressure steady state gas permeability measurements, Heid
et al (1950), Jones & Owens (1979) & Sampath & Keighin (1981). The paper suggested a new method which
built upon the work by Sampath and Keighin (1981) that recommended using permeability/porosity ratio
instead of merely permeability. Florence et al. recommended using square root permeability/porosity to
correlate slippage factors since it can be considered as the characteristic length for permeability and, as
described by Amaefule et al. (1988), is one of the major functional groups in the Kozeny-Carman equation
describing reservoir properties to mean hydraulic radius.

A large sample set (ranging from < 0.1 µD to 100 mD) underwent single-mean pressure steady state gas
permeability measurements, supplying kg at the test mean gas pressure. All samples later underwent unsteady
state pulse decay (closed system) at mean pressure of approximately 70 atmospheres, hence a closer estimate
to Klinkenberg corrected gas permeability. The steady state data for each sample were used to perform
Newton-Raphson regression using each of the models to derive slippage factor, b, and Klinkenberg corrected
gas permeability, kinf, including the Florence et al square root model. This allowed comparison of the steady
state to unsteady state permeability and of the different Klinkenberg models. When plotted alongside the
literature data, these results showed much lower variance of the regressed values.

Per Florence et al (2007) and including measurements from this study

Biography – Jules Reed

Jules has over 30 years’ experience in core analysis. He is a co-author of the authoritative book, Core Analysis:
A Best Practice Guide, V64 of the Development in Petroleum Science series (2015) and a former president of
the Society of Core Analysts (SCA). He is a member of the Technical Committee for the SCA and member of
the core analysis subcommittee of SPE’s Reservoir Advisory Committee. His main specialisations have been in
wettability, capillary pressure and dynamic processes; including relative permeability, enhanced recovery
systems and carbon capture, utilisation and storage.
Effective Permeability – How do you Calculate It?
Alan Johnson – Integrated Petrophysical Solutions– Aberdeen
I was recently asked the question: once you have effective porosity, how do you determine effective
permeability?

The assumption was that there must be some way to generate transforms between core -derived effective
porosity and effective permeability in the same way that you derive transforms between total core porosity
and total air permeability.

Taking one definition of the difference between total and effective porosity being the volume of clay bound
water, the talk will go on to investigate how far that concept can be applied to permeability. In this we will
look at the reliable correction of total core porosity to effective values and the corrections that would need to
be applied to core permeability. In this we will also investigate various options to determine clay bound water
volume on core.

In addition to clay bound water effects, to determine a true effective reservoir permeability, laboratory air
permeabilities also require correction for the effects of net overburden stress, and an adjustment from air to
liquid environment, the so-called Klinkenberg correction.

The talk will conclude with some practical recommendations on how best to determine a relationship to give
a true effective in-situ permeability, based on core-based measurements.

Speaker Bio:
Alan Johnson is a Petrophysical Consultant with Interactive Petrophysical Solutions (IPS) in Aberdeen.
Previously he was Principal Petrophysicist with Shell UK in Aberdeen. Prior to joining Shell in 2001, he worked
as an independent petrophysical consultant in the UK for several years following a 14-year career with
Hamilton Oil (later BHP Petroleum) as a Senior Petrophysicist and Petroleum Engineering Supervisor based in
London and Vietnam. He originally started his career Shell in 1974 with a degree in Physics from Aberdeen
University; during this early phase of his career he worked in Aberdeen, Abu Dhabi, and The Hague,
predominantly in petrophysics.
Relative Permeability: An Underrepresented Property

Relative permeability is often stated to be one of the major uncertainties in dynamic reservoir models, yet is
often the most statistically underrepresented measured property. Perhaps owing to lack of data, the process
of applying relative permeability to dynamic reservoir models seems to be less involved than the petrophysical
approach of implementing initial conditions to a static model.

Relatively permeability is strongly controlled by wettability and, in laboratory testing, by capillary pressure,
known as the capillary end effect (CEE) and by the methodology used. These laboratory artefacts require
correction of laboratory derived relative permeability to account for CEE. This can be a complex interpretation.

This presentation will delve into relative permeability and capillary pressure theory to explain these artefacts
and provide the process for correcting data. It will also consider that relative permeability is a function of rock
properties and ought to be implemented as models based on those properties.

Relative permeability as a function of methodology - McPhee et al 2015

Biography – Jules Reed

Jules has over 30 years’ experience in core analysis. He is a co-author of the authoritative book, Core Analysis:
A Best Practice Guide, V64 of the Development in Petroleum Science series (2015) and a former president of
the Society of Core Analysts (SCA). He is a member of the Technical Committee for the SCA and member of
the core analysis subcommittee of SPE’s Reservoir Advisory Committee. His main specialisations have been in
wettability, capillary pressure and dynamic processes; including relative permeability, enhanced recovery
systems and carbon capture, utilisation and storage.
Multi-Scale Pore Network Modelling of Multiphase Flow in Heterogeneous Porous Media with
Incorporation of Unresolved Pore Space

Abstract

Pore network modelling has been a powerful tool in studying multiphase flow through porous media and
determining permeability and relative permeability of rock for many years. However, many natural and
industrial porous media have pore size distributions that span several orders of magnitude, making it difficult
to resolve all the pore space in a single image. To address this issue, sub-resolution pore space must be
considered in pore network modelling.

This study introduces a workflow that incorporates unresolved porosity in modelling. The process involves
using differential micro-CT imaging to quantify porosity voxel-by-voxel, which introduces micro-links to
connect micro-porous regions to resolved pore space. An automatic parallelized algorithm identifies micro-
links that are incorporated into the pore network extracted from resolved pores. Micro-links are treated as
continuum Darcy-type porous media, and empirical correlations are used to determine their parameters. The
parameter of the empirical models is then tuned to match observed experimental behaviour using a multi-
scale pore network model.

The developed workflow was applied to model multiphase flow in Estaillades limestone, a complex rock
sample in which more than 50% of the pore space is unresolved in our micro-CT image. The results
demonstrate that incorporating unresolved porosity in modelling leads to more accurate predictions of flow
behaviour. Our multi-scale pore network model with the incorporation of unresolved pore space further
enhances the accuracy of predicting flow behaviour in heterogeneous porous media. Overall, this study
highlights the importance of considering sub-resolution pore space in pore network modelling and its potential
impact on predicting flow behaviour in heterogeneous porous media.
Speaker Bio

Dr. Sajjad Foroughi is a world-class expert in numerical modelling of multi-phase flow in porous media, with a
PhD in petroleum engineering from Sharif University of Technology. During his PhD, he developed a robust
and powerful code using the lattice Boltzmann method to model fluid flow in porous media.

Since joining Imperial College London in Feb 2019, Dr. Foroughi has been developing pore-scale modelling
tools. He has pioneered an optimization method to calibrate the wettability to match, pore-by-pore, the
observed displacement sequence. The developed code makes it possible to capture the same fluid
configurations as the micro-CT images of rocks. Dr. Foroughi has also recently written a multiscale model to
simulate flow through pore spaces with many orders of magnitude difference in size. This multiscale modelling
code gives us the chance to implement our optimization method to a wide range of porous media. This project
provides an open-source pore-scale modelling toolbox to characterize multiphase fluid dynamics in porous
materials. The unique features are the ability to model multiscale media, high-porosity materials, and a
workflow to calibrate the results against experiment.

Dr. Foroughi's expertise also includes pore- and continuum-scale dynamic multi-phase flow and transport
simulation, numerical simulation, computer programming, optimization, sensitivity analysis, machine learning,
and analytical modelling. He leads the modelling activity in the research group and acts as an interface
between numerical models and experimental laboratory, supervising PhD and MSc students, and collaborating
with researchers. He has a proven track record of collaboration with scientists both at Imperial College London
and globally.