Defining and Determining Permeability Richard Nolen-Hocksema Editor Permeability, which isthe capacity of a porous material to allow fluids to pass through it, depends on the number, geometry and sizeof intercon nected pores, capillaries and fractures (>i). Permeability is an intrinsic property of porous materials and governs the ease with which Guide move through hydrocarbon reservoirs, aquifers, gravel packs and flters. Permeability is defined in units of tea, which relate tothe ates of open pore space in the eross section tat faces, or is perpendicular to, the direc tion of owing Suid. In the International Systm of Unis (SI), the unt or permeability is m?, The common unit ithe darey(D) [about 10-H mi] this uni is named for the French engineer Ifenry Darcy, who conducted exper ments with water flowing through sand. These experiments led to the for: ralation of Darcy's law, which describes the steady-state flow of fuid through porous media. In most oilfield applications, the common uni isthe smilldarey (mD) {about 10" mt} Permeability is not to be confused with mobility or with hydraulic con Activity. Mobility is the mediums permeability divided by the dynamic viscosity of th fd Nowing through tho medium. Hydraulic conductivity, or bransmissivity, is the discharge, or elfctve, velocity of Quid ow through the medium and is equal tothe uid fha-—volume of Guid passing through a cross section during atime interval—dvided by the eros-sec tional area. Mobility and hydraulic conductivity are collective characteris ties that combine properties ofthe fd with hose of the porous medium. Factors Affecting Permeability Inmany materials, permeability is almost directly proportional tothe mate tial’ porosity, which is the faction ofthe material's total volume that is sarieg Poi ‘ Permeabity as a function of porosity, grain size and sorting. amples of artificially miked and packed sands wore measured fr porosity and permeability. Each symbol corresponds to a paricular grain siz, and red owed lines connect similarly sorted packs. Permeability increases with rin size and degre of sorting, Each data point represents an average value of porosity and permeability. [Dats from Beerd DC and Wey! PK: ‘Influence of Texture an Porosity and Permeability af Uncansoldated Sand" AAPG Bult), no. 2 (February 1873-248 368) ‘tet view une 28 898.8. apy 204 Seer “The importance of connectivity Connected pores green) give rock ts permeabilty, allowing fut flow black arrows) oocupied by pores, or voids. However this isnot an absolute rle. Textual and geologic factors determine the magnitude of permeability by increasing or decreasing the cross-sectional area of open pore space, These factors afc the geometry of the por space and are independent of fd typ. Material formea rom stacked arrays of identical sold spheres, be they cannonball, marbles or ball bearings, have equal porosities. However, the pore erose-setional area diller dramatically thus the permeabilities of these arrays also difor dramatically. The permeability for rocks mate of large, or coarse, grains will be higher than those of stall, or in, grains (Qelow le) Sorting isthe range of grain sues that occurs sedimentary materials Well sorted materials have grains ofthe same size, while poorly sored mate- vials have gains of many sites, Permeability decreases atthe dogree of sort ngvaris from good to poor because smal grains can fil the spaces between, large grain, Permeability is also infuenced by grain shape, Measures of grain shape ate sphericity, roundness and roughness, Spherciy iste degree to which a sain’ shape approximates that aa sphere. Roundness relates othe amount of smoothing of the grain surface, ranging from angular to ound. Roughness fs the degree of texture on grains. Grain shape affects packing, the 3D arrangement of grains. Variability in grain shape can prevent grains from aching their closest posible packing arrangement, which has an impact on Permeability As the degre of packing increases from lose to tight, a single sain contact an inctoasing numberof neighboring grains. Conzequents the spaces between grains andthe crsesectional areas open to low decrease, Ieading to lower permeability Diageness isthe alteration of 4 roek’s orginal mineralogy and texture Dissolution, dolomitiztion, facturing o other oekaltaring processes create auitional orsecondary porosity that mayinrease permeability Precipitation of cement between mineral and ock grains dereases permeability Cla min eas may for erstls that ne pore walls or grow as fibers ad plates that bre the pore volume, Authigenic interstitial elms, those that develop in place between grains, may fil pre space and reduce permeability: Allogenic lay, those that have been transported into pores can lig them, ‘Stress and pressure increase as rocks are buried deep in sedimentary basins, Inrespone, the rock’ bulk and pore volumes are compressed causing permeability to decrease. Fluid pressures lao affect permeability, an increase In fuid pressure opons pores, while a doeroas causes presto clase. Most rocks exhibit some degre of permeability anisotropy, whichis the ‘variation of permeability with direction, Grain sphericity andthe pretence of fractures ae factors that let the diretionality of permeability, SphericalPe Cur) rains form isotropic packs that allow fd to flow equally well in all ec tions. Oblate (flattened) and prolate (elongated) grains tend to rest horiaan tally and parallel to one another an form layers that affect the ease of uid ‘ow. Anisotropic permesbility is higher when fds ow parallel toa lye ‘than when perpendicular toi, Fluids fw more easily through open frac ture than betwoen grains Ifthe fractures havea preferred alignment, pe- ‘moabiliy is highest parallel to ths direction and is anisttropi. ‘Asa consequence ofthe textural and geologic factors that influence per ‘meability the path that Dud takes through rock may be longer, with many ‘tums ad bonds than the deo near distance between start and end pats (elo) Tortwosity isthe ratio of the actual distance traveled divided by the straight-line distance, Permeabit is inversely proportional to tortuosity. ‘Measuring Permeability Permeability can be measured inthe laboratory and indirectly determined in the fel, Inthe laboratory, analysts flow a single-phase fluid through a 1oek coo of known length and dlamoter The fui has known viscosity and flows a a set rate, When the low reaches steady stat, an analyst measures ‘the pressure drop across the core longth and uses Dare’ law to ealelate permeability For routine core analysis, the uid may bo alr, bat is more ‘oflen an inort gas, suchas nitrogen or helium. Iman alternative laboratory method, analysts apply get pressure to the upstream sd ofa sample and monitor asthe gas dows through the sample and the pressure equlbrates with the downstream pressure. During this unsteady-sate, or pressure-decay, procedure, analysts use the time rate of The grains are vansparentin the model, ard the po with Brine (ight blue). Flow starts at the Bolton. Four steps of thet are show; ftom earliest lates, the steps are colored blu 42K, The row pat ofthe tracers controlled by the tortuosity ofthe interconnected pare space. The aigtal rock model was obtained trom a {ore plug of lmestone; a 20 grayscale X-ray mage used to constuct the 20 rmodelis onthe right The model was coupled with digital id descriptions to simulate reservcir lov. The limestone sample had 18% porosity and cchango of pressre and effluent flow rato to sole for permeability. The pressure-decay method is particularly good for measuring the permeability of fight, or low-permeability, samples because steady-state low through ‘these samples takes slong time to achiev, ‘Analysts apply corrections to compensate for diferences between labo- ratory and downhole conditions. They account for stress differences by applying confining stress to one or more representative plug, or cor, sam- ples. To determine stress-related efocts on permeability, analysts often use several confining stresses on a few samples and then apply a correction {actor fr the rservotr confining stress tothe other samples Gas flow in pores is faster than ligud flow because Lguids experience ‘reater flow resistance, or drag, at pore wall than do gases, Tis gas slip- page, or higher flow rate of gases compared with liquids, is an eect that ‘an be corrected by incrementally increasing the mean gas pressure in the plug, which compresses the gas and increases its drag a the pore wall. The ‘linkenberg correction isan extrapolation of these measurements to inf- rite gas pressure, at which point gu is assumed to behave like a liquid. Inthe field, permeability can be estimated in the nea-welbore region ‘using woll logging data. The primary logging data come from nuclear mag- relic resonance (NMR) tools, Permeability estimates from NMR measure ‘ments roquire knowledge of the empirical rolalionship botwoen the ‘computed permeability, porosity and pore-size distribution; elimates are often calibrated to diect measurements on core samples from the well or ‘rom nearby wells. Permeabity may also be determined from downhole pressure and sampling tool measurements Permeability onthe reservoir scale is typically determined with drill sem tests (DST), Pressure transient analysis from DSTs assesses the aver- age in stu permeability ofthe reservoir. To match the transient behavior to that predicted by a formation model, interpreters use several techniques Tey can estimate an average effective permeability fom the low ate and pressure during steady-state production measured during specifi tests at ‘established flow rates, An average permeability can also be calculated from production history data by adjusting permeability until the correct history of production is obtained, Maltiphase Flow Permeability in a porous medium that i 100% saturated with a single phase Auld isthe absolute permeability, or synonymously, the intrinsic permea- ‘lity o specific permeability, Multiphase flow isthe simultaneous flow of multiple ude in a porous material pntaly saturated with each fluid. Each Sid phase flows a ite ‘own rate and competes for low paths with the other phase or phases. Its admittance through the porous space is determined by its fective perme- ability, orphase permeability The fractional low ofeach uid is elated to its relative permeability which is the rato ofthe uid’ effective pemea- bility divided bya reference valu, typically the absolute permeability. Maltiphase flow is also affected by wettability, which isthe preference that solids have tobe in contact with one fuid phase rather than another. Wetting affects the loca! distribution of phases, which has an impact on ther relative abilities to low Permeability isthe simplest measure of the produciility and injocty of subsurface formations, In formations of suficlent permeably, operations such as producing Mud hydrocarbons o water, conducting secondary and tar- ‘lay recovery and sequestering carbon oxide canbe accomplished, Oilfield Review