The Challenge of Carbonate Permeability Characterization: Off Shore Abu Dhabi Field Case Study

An integrated approach was performed to determine the possible causes of permeability mismatch between cores, logs, wireline formation testers and production tests in this field. Based on logs and core data, the reservoir was subdivided into different layers and further refined using permeability indices from NMR logs. Formation testers with advance measurements were used to evaluate effective vertical and horizontal permeability of a single layer. The production testing covering several layers was used to fine-tune subzone permeability and subsequent flow units.

The results from this study show that permeability given by CCA was somewhat misleading due to physical limitations from core plugging. The detailed core description and well-test data indicate that a significant portion of flow passes through high-permeability (vuggy) sections of the formation that cannot be measured by plugs. A formation tester was applied to check vertical and horizontal permeability in one productive zone.