RELATIVE

PERMEABILITY
SITI SARAH SALEHUDIN
sitisarah.salehudin@petronas.com.my

LESSON OUTCOMES
At the end of lesson, students should be able to:

Differentiate and relate between absolute, effective and

relative permeability

Describe profiles of permeability vs. saturation.

To illustrate established permeability correlations

Determine relative permeability from a known initial and

residual saturations

What is Permeability?
Permeability is a measure of the capability of a porous
medium to transmit fluid through a network of
microscopic channels under a certain driving force.
*In subsurface porous media, the driving force originates from the
pressure differential that exists between two points in the flow path
of the subsurface fluid.
Very Important!!

It control directional movement and

Flow rate of the reservoir fluids

q
A

kA P
q
L

qg
qo
qw
L
k w A P
qw
w L
k o A P
qo
o L
k g A P
qg
g L

qg
qo
qw

Water Relative
Permeability
Oil Relative
Permeability

kw
krw
k
ko
kro
k

Water Relative
Permeability

qg
qo
qw

Oil Relative
Permeability

kw
krw
k
ko
kro
k

Where:
krw: relative permeability to water, Kro: relative permeability
to oil , K: Absolute permeability

Depends on each fluid saturation in the pore

space.
Part of SCAL conducted on a carefully
preserved core samples
If lab data is not available, may use
correlations (e.g. Corey coefficients

Relative Permeability Extension of

Darcys Law to Two Phase Flow

Relative Permeability Extension of

Darcys Law to Two Phase Flow

Measurement of Relative
Permeability

Typical Oil-Water Relative Permeability Curve

80

60

Water flow region

kro @ Swc

Oil flow region

Relative Permeability (%)

100

Two-Phase Flow
Region

Oil

40

Water

As Sw increases, kro decreases and krw

increases until reaching residual oil
saturation.

krw @ Sor

At the Swc (critical or connate water

saturation), the krw= 0.

Sor or Soc

At maximum Sw, the kro=0, whereas krw

becomes less than unity (depend on the
wettability).

20
Swc

Relative permeability of a fluid phase always

varies between 0 and 1in any instance.

0
0

20

40
60
80
Water Saturation (%)

100

20

40
60
Oil Saturation (%)

100

80

11

Typical Gas - Oil Relative Permeability Curve

Connate water + residual oil saturations

Relative Permeability (%)

100

80
60
40
20
0

20

40

Two-Phase Flow
Region

Oil-gas relative permeability curve are usually

plotted against total liquid saturation or gas
saturation.

Oil
kro
Gas
krg

As SL decreases, the kro decreases and the krg

increases until it reaches a maximum at the
residual liquid saturation.

60

80

100

Total Liquid Saturation - % of Pore Volume

SL = So + Swi
12

Typical Gas - Oil Relative Permeability Curve

Krog

As free gas saturation (Sg) increases, the krog

decreases until the residual liquid saturation is
reached.

Krg

kr

Sgc

Sorg+Swc

Sg

Sl

Oil-gas relative permeability curve are

plotted against gas saturation.

The krg decreases and becomes zero at the

critical gas saturation (Sgc).

13

Factors Affecting Relative Permeability

Fluid saturations

Geometry of the pore spaces and pore size

distribution

Wettability

Fluid saturation history (i.e., imbibition or

drainage)

14

Effect of Water Saturation in

Reducing Oil Flow Path
Connate
water
ROCK
ROCK
OIL
OIL
ROCK

ROCK

15

Effect of Wettability on Relative

Permeability
Strongly Water-Wet Rock

Oil flows more freely

Intersection curve is more than 50%
Low degree of symmetry

Strongly Oil-Wet Rock

Water flows more freely

Intersection curve is less than 50%
High degree of symmetry

16

Effect of Wettability on Relative

Permeability

Effect of Fluid Saturation History Hysteresis

Effect

Reversal in the permeability profile in

changing the saturation history.
Can happen in both capillary pressure
and relative permeability when there is
a reversal in saturation change.

Typical
Drainage &
Imbibition
Pc Curves
Capillary Hysterisis
The area between the drainage and imbibition
curves is called the hysteresis loop

PAIR DISCUSSION :
Why theres difference between
imbibition and drainage curve?

Because oil forced into rock

pores cannot be so easily
forced out. In fact part of the oil,
the irreducible oil saturation,
cannot be forced out no
matter how high a water
phase pressure is used.

 Changing a flo od pattern could cause flow reversals leading to hysteresis

Hysteresis effect can happen in both capillary pressure and relative permeability
when there is a reversal in saturation change

Effect of Fluid Saturation History Hysteresis

Effect
1

Drainage

kro

krw

Pc
H

Drainage

Imbibition

Imbibition

OWC
0

Swc
0
1

Sw

1- Sor
So

1
0

FWL
0

Swc

Sw

23

IMBIBITION
Wetting fluid displaces the nonwetting fluid from a capillary
Spontaneous driven by adhesion
tension

IMBIBITION
THINK! :
How do we apply this concept of
imbibition in reservoir studies???
When does this happen in reservoir life
cycle?

IMBIBITION
Happens during

PRODUCTION STAGE
-when water displaces oil from
a water-wet reservoir-

IMBIBITION
Laboratory procedure :
1. Saturate the core with the oil (non-wetting phase).
2. Displacing the oil to its residual oil saturation by
injecting water.
* Imbibition process is intended to produce the relative
permeability data needed for water drive or water flooding
calculations.

DRAINAGE
Non-wetting fluid displaces the wetting fluid
from a capillary
Not spontaneous opposed by adhesion
tension
Requires pressure of the non-wetting fluid
to be increased over that of the wetting
fluid - capillary entry pressure or capillary
threshold pressure.

DRAINAGE
THINK! :
How do we apply this concept
of drainage in reservoir
studies???
When does this happen in
reservoir life cycle?

DRAINAGE
Happens during
HC ACCUMULATION
STAGE
-when HC displaces water
from a water-wet reservoir-

DRAINAGE
Laboratory procedure :
1.Saturate the core with water.

2.Then displace the water to a residual, or connate, water

saturation with oil after which the oil in the core is displaced by

gas.
This procedure is designed to establish the original fluid
saturations that are found when the reservoir is discovered.

Drainage and Imbibition

Pore spaces of reservoir rocks were originally

filled with water.

When discovered, the reservoir pore spaces are

filled with a connate water saturation and oil or
gas saturation.

This same history must be duplicated in the

laboratory to eliminate the effects of hysteresis.

2-Phase Relative Permeability

Typical Two-Phase Flow Behaviour
(Water-Oil System)
Oil non-wetting phase
Water wetting phase

2-Phase Relative Permeability

4
1

Point 1:
a small saturation change of
the non-wetting phase will
drastically reduce the
relative permeability of the
wetting phase.

2-Phase Relative Permeability

4
1

Point 2:
non-wetting phase begins to
flow at the relatively low
saturation of the nonwetting phase.
The saturation of the oil at
this point is called critical
oil saturation, Soc.

2-Phase Relative Permeability

4
1

Point 3:
wetting phase will cease to
flow at a relatively large
saturation.
The saturation of the water
at this point is called
irreducible water
saturation (Swir) or
connate water
saturation (Swc ).

2-Phase Relative Permeability

4
1

Point 4:
at the lower saturations of
the wetting phase, changes in
the wetting phase saturation
have only a small effect on
the magnitude of the nonwetting phase relative
permeability curve.

2-Phase Relative Permeability

Gas-oil (or Gas-Liquid)

Relative Permeability
Curves

2-Phase Relative Permeability

When one immiscible fluid is displacing another, it is impossible to reduce the
saturation of the displaced fluid to zero.

At some small saturation (the saturation at which the displaced phase ceases
to be continuous), flow of the displaced phase will cease

this saturation is

referred as the residual saturation.

Meanwhile, the saturation at which a fluid will just begin to flow is called the
critical saturation.

Critical saturation is measured in the direction of increasing saturation, while

irreducible saturation is measured in the direction of reducing saturation.

2-Phase Relative Permeability

Correlations
Correlations are needed
permeability data.

to

project

relative

Correlations use effective phase saturations.

So*, Sw*, Sg*
respectively
So, Sw, Sg
Swc

= effective oil, water, and gas saturation,

= oil, water and gas saturation, respectively
= connate (irreducible) water saturation

2-Phase Relative Permeability

Correlations

Torcaso and Wyllie Correlation

Coreys Method

2-Phase Relative Permeability Correlations

Based on a linear relationship of the

reciprocal capillary pressure squared (1/Pc2)
and the effective water saturation Sw* over
a wide range of saturation.

2-Phase Relative Permeability Correlations

Wyllie and Gardner correlations when only one relative permeability
is available.
Oil-Water system

Gas-Oil system

2-Phase Relative Permeability Correlations

The expression permits the calculation of kro

from the measurements of krg.

The above expression is very useful since krg

measurements are easily made and kro
measurements are usually made with difficulty.

2-Phase Relative Permeability Correlations

Generalized relationships for determining the wetting and nonwetting phase relative permeability for both imbibition and
drainage processes.
Generalized expressions are applied for water-wet rocks.

2-Phase Relative Permeability Correlations

For the water (wetting) phase
The expression is valid for both the imbibition
and drainage processes

For the nonwetting phase

Imbibition

Drainage

Snw
Sw
Sw*

= saturation of the nonwetting phase

= water saturation
= effective water saturation

2-Phase Relative Permeability Correlations

Coreys Method

A simple mathematical expression for generating the relative

permeability data of the gas-oil system.
The approximation is good for drainage processes.

2-Phase Relative Permeability Correlations

Coreys Method
Gas-oil system

where the effective gas saturation Sg* is expressed:

2-Phase Relative Permeability Correlations

Coreys Method
Corey (1954) proposed that the water-oil relative permeability can be
represented as follows:

It should be pointed out that Coreys

equations
apply
only
to
well-sorted
homogenous rocks.

EXERCISE

Example 1
Generate the drainage relative permeability data for an unconsolidated
well-sorted sand by using Wyllie and Gardner method for:
a. Oil-water system
b. Gas-oil system
*Assume the following critical saturation values:

Solution
A. Oil-water system

Calculate effective water saturation:

Solution
A. Oil-water system

Choose the right relative

permeability formula:

Solution
A. Oil-water system

Calculate relative
permeability of oil-water
system:

Solution
B. Gas-oil system

Calculate effective oil saturation:

Solution
B. Gas-oil system

Choose the right relative

permeability formula:

Solution
B. Gas-oil system

Calculate relative
permeability of gas-oil
system:

Example 2
Resolve Example 1 by using Pirsons correlation for the water-oil system.
*Assume the following critical saturation values:
For the water (wetting) phase
The expression is valid for both the imbibition
and drainage processes

For the nonwetting phase

Imbibition

Drainage

Solution

Calculate effective water saturation:

Solution

Calculate relative
permeability of water-oil
system:

Example 3
Use Coreys approximation
permeability for a formation.

to

generate

*Assume the following critical saturation values:

the

gas-oil

relative

Solution

Calculate effective gas saturation:

Solution
B. Gas-oil system

Calculate relative
permeability of gas-oil
system:

 Two-Phase Relative Permeability

Two-Phase Relative Permeability
Correlation

Relative Permeability from Capillary

Pressure Data & Analytical Equation