PERMEABILITY ANALYSIS OF FRACTURED-VUGGY CARBONATE RESERVOIRS BASED ON FRACTAL THEORY

Abstract

Permeability analysis is an essential process in reservoir characterization. As one of the most development potential kind of reservoirs, the coexistence of fractures and vugs brings great challenges to permeability analysis of fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoirs due to its highly heterogeneity on multi scales. In this work, a novel permeability analysis model is developed for fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoirs based on fractal theory, which can predict the permeability of fractured-vuggy porous media within a reliable range. Besides, a Monte Carlo simulation has also been implemented to obtain feasible values of permeability based on experimental sample parameters. The validity of the proposed fractal model is verified by both the experimental data and numerical simulation results. Each parameter in the model has clear physical meaning. The results show that the permeability of a fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoir is related to the fracture fractal dimension, fracture fractal tortuosity dimension, the maximum vug diameter and the maximum fracture aperture.