MODELLING AN EMPIRICAL EQUATION FOR ANALYSING RELATIVE PERMEABILITY IN THE NIGER DELTA (XYZ) RESERVOIRS

Akpoturi Peters and Henry Idudje

Department of Petroleum Engineering

 Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun

Email; Petersakpoturi1212@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Relative permeability for a fluid is the relative flow of that fluid when its saturation in the reservoir rock is less than a hundred percent. It is also the ratio of effective to absolute permeability at a given saturation condition of the rock pore spaces and the wetting characteristics of the fluid/rock surfaces. Direct relative permeability data is very difficult to determine for the Niger Delta reservoirs because of. —      Problems connected with obtaining sufficient and representative data for the area;—      No comprehensive work on this determination has so far been done in the area;—      Existing correlations from literature gives inaccurate values for the area.

In this investigation, empirical equations for two phase relative permeability data (oil/water, gas/oil systems), are developed by processing a large set of core data samples from special core analysis of various wells of the Niger Delta reservoirs.

The generalized empirical equation:

Krf = RWeλs, serves as a:—      First estimate of the relative permeability values for Niger Delta reservoirs which have little or no available data information.—      Means of cross-checking relative permeability values obtained through other methods.—      Means of obtaining the relative permeability data when good estimate of fluid saturations are possible.—      Good and economical starting set of relative permeability data during history matching phase of reservoir simulation for the Niger Delta reservoirs.

Keywords; Relative permeability, reservoirs, Rocks, empirical equations, and fluids