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Chapter from:
AAPG Memoir 71 : Reservoir Characterization-Recent Advances
Edited by Richard A. Schatzinger and John F. Jordan
Copyright 1999 by The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.
Memoir 71, Chapter 24: Characterization and Estimation of Permeability Correlation Structure from Performance Data , by Mohammed Y. Al-Qahtani and Iraj Ershaghi , Pages 343 - 358

Chapter 24
Characterization and Estimation of Permeability Correlation Structure from Performance Data

Mohammed Y. Al-Qahtani
Saudi ARAMCO
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Iraj Ershaghi
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

In this study, the influence of permeability structure and correlation length on the system effective permeability and recovery factors of 2-D (two-dimensional) cross-sectional reservoir models under waterflood is investigated. Reservoirs with identical statistical representation of permeability attributes are shown to exhibit different system effective permeability and production characteristics, which can be expressed by a mean and a variance. The mean and variance are shown to be significantly influenced by the correlation length. Detailed quantification of the influence of horizontal and vertical correlation lengths for different permeability distributions is presented.