New Correlations of Oil and Water Relative Permeability- Saturation for Sudanese sandstone Formations

Abstract

Relative permeability is a direct measure of a porous medium's ability to conduct one fluid when one or more fluids are present. These flow properties are the composite effect of pore geometry, wettability, fluid saturation, and saturation history. The direct determination of relative permeability from special core analysis data and theoretical considerations is valuable information for reservoir analysis. Laboratory methods for measuring the relative permeability curves include steady state and unsteady-state methods. These methods are expensive and time consuming. With these methods, the relative permeability curves of representative and sufficient core samples from a reservoir are measured. In the absence of core analysis data, the relative permeability can be determined from empirical equations. The objective of this study is to build a new equations for oil relative permeability and water relative permeabilityfor three Sudanese sandstone formations.The study included 52 core samples and 1215 data points from 3 different Sudanese sandstone formations in block 6and2. All the laboratory tests were made at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Nonlinear least-square regression analyses were applied on collected laboratory experimental data for development of empirical equations for water/oil relative permeability using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS)software. The R2 statistical concept determined the goodness of fit of the new equations. As R2 approaches to 1,which it indicates an adequate fit. Experimental data from 18 core samples that were not utilized while the models were developed; are used to validate the new correlations .by comparing the results from the new correlation and the results from correlations of Wyllie, Pirson, Honarpour, and Mohamed Ibrahim, as well as experimental data.was showed that the result from new equations for relative permeability are the closest to experimental data.