By Scott Dodge (Virtual Petrophysics) and Craig Phillips (Crested Butte Petrophysical Consultants)
Accurate permeability estimation from High-Pressure Mercury Injection (HPMI) core data is not only possible — it may be essential for understanding matrix properties in challenging reservoirs.
This work was inspired by that of the late Dr Doug Ruth and Craig Lindsay (Ruth, D., Lindsay, C., “Combining Electrical Measurements and Mercury Porosimeter to Predict Permeability,” SCA2012-28) and Ed Clerke, Ph.D. (Buiting, J.J.M., Clerke, E.A., “Permeability from Porosimetry Measurements: Derivation for a Tortuous and Fractal Tubular Bundle,” Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2013).
The Krev permeability model has been tested on both Middle east carbonate reservoirs in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates as well as low permeability clastics tight gas reservoirs of North America and New Zealand. We have found that the model can accurately predict permeability from the use of capillary pressure and electrical property measurements on core of any shape, plug, chip sample or rotary sidewall core. As the method uses the entire drainage capillary pressure curve, there are no scaling or calibration factors required for this method to determine single phase permeability.
We invite you to read the article and explore the methods we’ve implemented:
Included here is the reference ² Dodge, S., “A Permeability Model from the Integration of Capillary Pressure, Electrical
Properties and NMR to Predict Hydraulic Rock Pore Types,” LPS Seminar, 2023.
Founder, Director and Principal of Virtual Petrophysics