SPWLA 50th Annual Logging Symposium, June 21-24, 2009

DIRECT PERMEABILITY ESTIMATION USING PRODUCTION LOG

Antonio Cosme Del Rey - Petrobras S.A.
Alvaro Marcello Marco Peres - Petrobras S.A.
Abelardo Borges Barreto Junior - Petrobras S.A.
Srgio Ribeiro de Almeida - Petrobras S.A.
Cristiano Leite Sombra - Petrobras S.A.
Copyright 2009, held jointly by the Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log
Analysts (SPWLA) and the submitting authors.

from flow in porous media itself while others are

obtained indirectly from physical proprieties of the
reservoir. The first measurement category considers
basic plug petrophysics, wireline pre-tests, wireline
tests and well tests/DST. In the second, it is worth to
mention the magnetic resonance tool estimation,
correlations based in porosity and irreducible water
saturation, and multivariate statistic techniques applied
to wireline logs. All above mentioned techniques rarely
capture all the heterogeneities that have a significant
impact in the reservoir future performance because the
volume of reservoir rock involved in each is very
limited. This work presents a methodology to estimate
the permeability field based on production logging
measurements obtained during well testing operations
in horizontal wells. This in-situ estimate is obtained in
reservoir conditions very similar to those expected
during the reservoir production phase. Moreover, the
measurement scale is such that allows proper
heterogeneity identification that can be transferred
directly to numerical flow models. The main objectives
of this work is to make a quantitative comparison
against others known techniques and to discuss the
representatively of the permeability measurements as
well as how and where it can be used. A theoretical
background to the proposed technique is presented first.
Then, application to field cases are shown and
discussed. A preliminary study was presented by Del
Rey et all. (2007).

th

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPWLA 50 Annual Logging
Symposium held in The Woodlands, Texas, United States, June 21-24, 2009.

ABSTRACT
The search for a practical methodology that provides a
realistic estimation of reservoir rock permeability that
correctly representing their heterogeneities is one of the
most challenging tasks of the oil industry. Presently
there are several methods and tools that measure the
permeability with dimensions of a few cubic
centimeters of reservoir rocks to more than a hundred
cubic meters. Among those techniques are: magnetic
resonance (cubic centimeter), plugs basic petrophysics
(cubic centimeter), wireline pre-tests (a few cubic
centimeter), wireline tests (cubic decimeter) and well
tests/DST (tens to hundreds cubic meters). Those
techniques rarely capture all the heterogeneities that
have impact in the future production history because of
the limited volume of reservoir rock investigated in
each case. This work presents a simple technique to
estimate a permeability profile based on production
logs performed during well testing operations in
horizontal wells. The proposed methodology provides
permeability estimates in reservoir conditions similar to
those expected during the reservoir production phase
and in a large draining volume allowing someone to
identify heterogeneities that can be implemented
directly into numerical flow models simulators. The
object of this paper is two fold: (1) make quantitative
comparisons with others available techniques and (2)
discuss the representatively of the permeability
measurements and how and where it can be used. A
theoretical background of the proposed technique is
provided and them it is applied to two field cases.

PRODUCTION LOGGING AS A TOOL FOR

PERMEABILITY PROFILE ESTIMATION
Production logs are commonly run during well testing
operations for fluid identification and entry points. A
typical production logging assembly is shown in Figure
1. The flowmeter (spinner) is positioned in the lower
extremity of the tool and measure the borehole fluid
velocity at each section open to flow. This paper
presents a technique to calculate a permeability profile
using correlations that combine spinner velocity
derivative, well test analysis and open hole logs. To the
best of the authors knowledge, this work presents the
first attempt using production logging measurements to
generate a permeability profile along the open section
of a well.

INTRODUCTION
Permeability is one of the most critical parameters for
reservoir modeling with numerical flow simulators.
Therefore the search for a technique that measures this
parameter is the focus of many fields in the oil industry.
Nowadays there are many ways for permeability
estimation in rocks: some of them are obtained directly

SPWLA 50th Annual Logging Symposium, June 21-24, 2009

The well log of the spinner velocity derivative, named

here as borehole velocity gradient, shows a
crosscorrelation with the reservoir permeability. Below
it is presented a brief theoretical development that
provides the basis of our proposed technique.

p e p wf =

q j B re
ln + S (2)
2k jh j rw

Neglecting friction loss in the borehole, combining Eqs.

1 and 2 yields

kj =

kmh q j
(3)
Q hj

Note that Eq. 3 is applied to a set of discrete producing

subintervals. It can also be represented in a continuous
form as

k (z ) =

kmh ~
q ( z ) (4)
Q

where k(z) is the permeability at depth z and ~

q (z )
denotes the specific rate (flow rate/thickness) at depth
z. As km, h, and Q are known, Eq. 4 indicates that the
permeability vs. depth profile can be calculated if the
inflow rate vs. depth can be measured from production
logs.
The relationship between the borehole flow rate at a
given depth, Q(z), and the spinner revolution readings
at the same depth, r(z), is given by

Q( z ) = C1r( z ) + C 2 (5)
where C1 and C2 are spinner calibration constants that
are function of borehole diameter, wellbore flow
regimes (laminar or turbulent), etc.
Figure 1 Schlumbergers flowmeter tool that provides
the data needed for the analysis method presented here
(Schlumberger, 2002)

The flow rate Q(z) represents the cumulative

contribution of all subintervals below the depth z, that
is

Without loss of generality, it is assumed that during the

production logging operation the flow in the pay zone is
given by the steady-state equation

p e p wf =

Q( z ) =

z=h

~q(z)dz (6)
z =0

QB re
ln + S (1)
2k m h rw

In Eq. 6 z=0 and z=h represent the top and the bottom
of the pay zone. Substituting Eq. 6 in Eq. 5 and taking
the derivative of the resulting equation with regard to
depth z gives

where km = mean permeability in the pay interval

(estimated by WT analysis); h = net pay; Q = total flow
rate during production logging; B = formation volume
factor; = reservoir fluid viscosity; pe= reservoir
pressure; pwf = flowing bottom hole pressure; re =
reservoir external radius; rw = borehole radius; S = skin
factor.

dr( z )
~
(7)
q( z ) = C1
dz
where dr(z)/dz is the spinner velocity derivative at
depth z.
Figure 2 shows the spinner logs obtained in a real case.
The raw (green) and filter (red) spinner revolution logs
are showing in the left. In general, it is necessary to
filter the spinner log readings before computing the
velocity gradient as the noise caused by the wellbore
fluid flow is larger than the interval flow rate variation.

Considering now a subinterval with thickness hj and

permeability kj with production qj, then Eq. 1 becomes

SPWLA 50th Annual Logging Symposium, June 21-24, 2009

A low pass band filter can be used to do this operation.

The right track in Fig. 2 shows the borehole velocity
gradient log. This log has a direct correlation with the
pay reservoir permeability as it will be shown below.

CASE HISTORY 1
The first application of the method is on a heavy-oilbearing sandstone exhibiting high permeability and
porosity values. The objective here is to derive the
permeability field through the overall reservoir area.
Three horizontal wells were drilled. There are DST and
production logs results available for two of them. It was
observed that the productivity index value of the well
without flowmeter logs is higher than the index values
of the other two wells. To investigate the reason behind
these differences, equation 9 was used to estimate a log
derived permeability for the wells where flowmeter
results were available. The results were plotted together
with resistivity, sonic, density, neutron and gamma ray
data. Permeability correlates better with a linear
combination of density and neutron logs (Figure 3).

Figure 2 Spinner Flow velocity (green-raw and redfilter) and borehole flow velocity gradient (black) logs.
Substituting Eq. 7 in the right hand side of Eq. 4 gives

k( z ) =

k m h dr( z )
(8)
C1
Q
dz

To apply Eq. 8, first note that the permeability km and

the total flow rate Q are obtained from well tests. Also
note that the net-pay h contributing to production comes
directly from the production logging measurement.
Therefore, using the borehole velocity gradient log, one
is able to compute permeability versus depth log.
Equation 8 can be written in a more general form so it
can be used not only with well test data but also to
correlate production logs with core data, magnetic
resonance or others porosity logs. The general equation
is:
k (z ) = A * G (z) + B (9)

Figure 3 Permeability derived log (red left track),

linear combination between density and neutron log
(light green left track), density log (dark green right
track) and neutron log (yellow right track).

where G(z) is the flowmeter velocity derivative at depth

z. Note that A an B are constants obtained by
crosscorrelation. Equation 9 is the basis of the method
presented in this paper and will be applied to two
different geological settings.

In its turn, linear combination between density and

neutron logs correlates with the configuration of the
pore space of reservoir rocks. Physically, the
correlation can be explained by the capacity that this

SPWLA 50th Annual Logging Symposium, June 21-24, 2009

linear combination has of identifying the content of clay

minerals that usually diminish or obliterate pore throats,
provoking a reduction in the permeability of the rock.
Figure 4 correlates the linear combination between
density and neutron log and log-derived permeability.
The cloud of points demonstrates a high degree of
scattering of the data, basically due to the difference in
resolution of the tools. Flowmeter log is not sensitive to
small variations in porosity, captured by density and
neutron logs. Nevertheless, it is possible to observe a
clear correlation between the two variables. Figure 5
show the highlighted points in Figure 4 in the measured
well logs.

Figure 5 - Permeability log (left track) and linear

combination between density and neutron log (right
track). The colors display the highlighted points of
Figure 4.
.

Figure 4 Log-derived permeability values (horizontal

axis) and linear combination between density and
neutron log (vertical axis).
Permeability values calculated using equation 9 were
compared with results from DST. Table 1 illustrates the
good agreement obtained.
Table 1
Well

K DST (mD)

784

K log (mD)

Error (%)

870

-11

719

600

17

1354

1316

Calculations from Equation 9 was also compared with

petrophysical measurements for cored wells (Figure 6).
In a general way, permeability values from core
analysis are lower than permeability values from logs.
The difference can be due to an overestimation of the
confinement pressure during the petrophysical
measurements. Figure 7 correlates permeability
measurements from cores and values obtained using the
proposed equation. It can be noted that core values
range from 50 to 1000 mD whereas estimated values
with equation range from 500 to 1000 mD, latter values
being more compatible with DST estimated values for
Well 3 (~1354 mD).

Figure 6 Porosity from logs (purple line - left track),

porosity from cores (purple dots - left track),
permeability from logs (red line - right track) and
permeability from core (blue dots - right track) from a
vertical well.

SPWLA 50th Annual Logging Symposium, June 21-24, 2009

Figure 7 - Permeability from logs (y axis) and from

cores (x axis).
CASE HISTORY 2
The main objective of this second case is to include the
log-permeability estimated values in the flow
simulation model. The reservoir is a light oil saturated
medium porosity/permeability sandstone.

Figure 9 Well 1: gamma ray (red curve - left track),

resistivity (pink curve - left track), flow meter (purple
curve - right track) and permeability (pink curve - right
track).

Here DST and flowmeter results are available for four

horizontal wells. The same methodology was applied
with permeability values being obtained from
production logs for all the wells. Figure 8 shows the
well paths with the permeability log, where important
differences in permeability values can be seen. Figures
9 to 12 show the logs in more detail.

Figure 10 presents log data for Well 2. Now, based on

log-derived permeability curve, it is possible to
distinguish three different intervals (Z1, Z2 and Z3)
showing different behaviors, despite lack of substantial
variation on porosity values over the intervals. There is
only a slight increasing on the resistivity values in
higher permeability interval, indicating a possible
reduction on the value of water saturation associated to
the porosity/permeability characteristics of the rock.

Figure 8 Well paths (in magenta) and permeability

values log (in black).
Figure 9 presents log data for Well 1. Here it is possible
to divide the pay interval into two sections (Z1 and Z2)
exhibiting different permeability patterns. There is a
good correlation with resistivity. Where there is low
permeability there is also low resistivity.

Figure 10 Well 2: gamma ray (red - left track),

resistivity (blue - left track), neutron log (yellow - left

SPWLA 50th Annual Logging Symposium, June 21-24, 2009

track), density log (green - right track), flowmeter (red right track) and permeability (pink - right track).

track), density log (green - right track), flowmeter (red right track) and permeability (pink - right track).

Figure 11 presents log data for Well 3 Here it is observe

small variations in permeability pattern in sand
reservoir and an interbedded shale interval.

DATA INTEGRATION
MODEL

TO

SIMULATION

The permeability data obtained using this technique

was integrated during the construction of the geological
model of the field. The mapping of facies used a
proportion matrix in order (Figure 13) to represent the
architectural elements of the depositional system and
the observed geophysical characteristics (Figure 14).

Figure 13 Reservoir proportion matrix used in the

mapping of facies. (high values purple low values
red)
In the reservoir facies a porosity conditional simulation
was done taking in account the histogram of porosity
distribution observed in the wells.

Figure 11 Well 3: gamma ray (red - left track),

resistivity (blue - left track), neutron log (yellow - left
track), density log (green - right track), flowmeter (red right track) and permeability (pink - right track).
Figure 12 presents log data for Well 4. Now, based on
log-derived permeability curve, it is possible to
distinguish higher permeability intervals showing open
fractures crossing the reservoir.

Figure 14 Facies map of the reservoir (yellow

sandstone green shale).
Finally, a permeability model was done using cokriging of the log of permeability observed in the wells
and the porosity distribution obtained in the model
(Figure 15).

Figure 15 Permeability map of the reservoir (red low

values - blue high values).
Those data was upscaled to a simulation model using
arithmetic average for the porosity and horizontal
permeability and a correlation between vertical
permeability and NTG.

Figure 12 Well 4: gamma ray (red - left track),

resistivity (blue - left track), neutron log (yellow - left

SPWLA 50th Annual Logging Symposium, June 21-24, 2009

FLOW SIMULATION RESULTS

Better history matches and forecasts can result as a
consequence from more reliable geological models.

The integration of permeability data obtained using the

production log tool make possible that the producer
well had the same production profile in the flow
simulator. It was observed that this profile show small
variation along the time. As a conclusion, the cell
permeability is the main factor in determine the way of
drainage of each well interval.

REFERENCES

Del Rey, A.C., Sombra, C.L., Peres, A.M.M., Barreto

Jr, A.B.,. and Almeida, S.R 2007, Estimativa de
permeabilidade baseada em dados de perfil de
produo. Anais do Seminrio de Reservas e
Reservatrios 2007, Petrobras, 16p.

This approach was applied to a producer reservoir

obtaining good history match and breakthrough time
estimation.

Schlumberger, 2002, Taking production logging to new

places. Memory PS Platform Schlumberger, 6pp
CONCLUSION
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Direct permeability estimation using production logs is

a new methodology that should be used more often in
petroleum industry.

Antonio Cosme Del Rey, Geologist, Senior Technical

Support from E&P Petrobras. Has more than 20 years
experience in reservoir characterization and petrophical
analysis.

Permeability estimates obtained using this method, due

to the fact that they represent better the flow in
reservoir conditions, are more reliable than estimates
derived from current available log-based methods.