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Abstract

(Begin page 477)

AAPG Bulletin, V. 85, No. 3 (March 2001), P. 477-489.

Copyright ©2001. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

A comparison of plug-derived and probe-derived permeability in cross-bedded sandstones of the Virgelle Member, Alberta, Canada: The influence of flow directions on probe permeametry

Rudi Meyer,1 Federico F. Krause2

1Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive N.W., Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada; email: [email protected]
2Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive N.W., Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada; email: [email protected]

AUTHORS

Rudi Meyer earned his M.S. degree in structural geology from Michigan State University and then worked at Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., focusing primarily on development geology in the Maracaibo basin. He earned his Ph.D. in clastic reservoir sedimentology from the University of Calgary, receiving the 1998 Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Award for the most significant contribution to Canadian sedimentary and petroleum geology. His current research interests are integrated reservoir characterization, fractured reservoirs, and provenance, deposition, and diagenesis of sediments in the Alberta foreland basin.

Fed Krause earned his B.S. and M.S.(honors) degrees from the University of Kansas and Ph.D. from the University of Calgary, Canada. He has worked in industry, government, and university. His research has focused mostly on applications to petroleum reservoir geology, including shorefaces and ravinement surfaces, paleosoils and unconformities, progradational estuaries, ancient muddy coastlines, and cool/cold water carbonates and methane clathrate hydrates. Field work commonly lands him in the Book Cliffs, southern Alberta/northern Montana, western Nevada, the Florida Keys, and the Basque Country.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Ron Lysell for plug permeability tests carried out in the course of this study. Special thanks go to Core Laboratories Canada, Ltd., Calgary, for providing free use of the probe permeameter. This article is part of Rudi Meyer's Ph.D. dissertation, funded by Lagoven S.A. (former affiliate of Petróleos de Venezuela S.A.), Norcen Energy Resources Ltd. via the Norcen Energy Geology and Geophysics Research Grant in memory of Debbie Olsen (awarded to Federico F. Krause), and the Department of Geology and Geophysics of the University of Calgary. We are grateful for the constructive criticism and comments of AAPG editor N. F. Hurley and reviewers S. Jones, A. Hurst, and J. B. Thomas that helped to improve the manuscript.

ABSTRACT

In this article we compare permeability measured on radially confined cylindrical plugs to permeabilities measured using a millimeter-scale probe tip on unconfined end-faces of the same plugs. Our investigation focuses on directional attributes of probe permeametry data as a means to understand the differences between plug-scale and probe-scale permeability magnitudes. Horizontal and vertical plug and probe flow tests were carried out on fine- to medium-grained, three-dimensional (3-D) cross-bedded sandstones collected from estuarine channel successions within the Cretaceous-age Virgelle Member at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, southern Alberta, Canada. The sandstones are heterogeneous in that they contain thin, discontinuous micaceous/carbonaceous laminae and apparent bedding-parallel grain-scale fabric.

The resulting probe-derived permeabilities (0.4-3.5 d) are mostly higher than corresponding plug permeabilities (0.5-1.6 d), and mean probe-derived permeability anisotropy is significantly lower than that derived from plug-scale measurements, that is, plug kV/kH is less than probe-derived kV/kH. The results can be understood as a consequence of the model flow geometry of probe flow tests (Goggin et al., 1988), namely, that flow is preferentially directed parallel to the sample surface, radially outward from the probe tip.

On end-faces of vertical plugs the bedding-parallel fabric further enhances flow parallel to the sample surface, and probe measurements yield reliable estimates of horizontal permeability, having magnitudes comparable to the permeability of equivalent (Begin page 478) horizontal plugs. For probe measurements on end-faces of horizontal plugs, flow paths appear to be variably confined parallel to bedding as a function of grain-scale and laminae-scale fabric, systematically yielding an overestimate of horizontal permeability (kPRH > kPLH). Interpretation of probe data in this orientation, however, is very uncertain, due to partitioning of flow paths parallel to and at angle to bedding. Significantly, almost all probe permeameter core and outcrop studies are based on measurements of this type.

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