Formulation of general relative permeability correlation of field A

Abstract

Relative permeability data are essential for almost all fluid flow calculations in reservoirs and are utilized extensively in many areas of petroleum engineering. Relative permeability measurements are conducted on core samples in laboratory and are both time-consuming and expensive to produce. As a result of the difficulties and cost involved in measuring relative permeability values, empirical correlations and calculations are often employed in order to estimate the values. In the field of study which is Field A, there is only one SCAL data available from a reservoir. Hence there is a need to formulate a general correlation to be used in the field of study or other fields in Malay basin with no or limited SCAL data. The establishment of such correlation will be the main objective of this research. The available SCAL data were manipulated and analyzed to create a suitable correlation to be used for other reservoirs. Three published correlations were chosen to be analyzed and compared to determine the most suitable correlations for the field under study. The research started with data collection which includes data quality checking and screening. Six (6) core samples for kro-krw and six (6) core samples for krg-kro was were used in this research. Then detailed analysis of the data and correlation formulation was conducted. Three (3) correlations which are Corey, Chierici and LET were compared and analyzed. From all the correlations, Corey and Chierici correlations are not flexible enough to reconcile the entire set of experimental observations. LET correlation exhibits flexibility to satisfactorily reconcile the entire set of experimental data. The s-behaviour is well modeled by LET correlation. This correlation was chosen and tested in the dynamic model to test its validity. Results showed that acceptable matching of oil rate and water cut were obtained. Hence the correlations were accepted and will be used to generate pseudo-relative permeability curves for other hydrocarbon reservoirs in Field A.