Klinkenberg Permeability Prediction by Using Absolute Gas Permeability in Carbonate Hydrocarbon Reservoir Rocks of South-West of Iran

Permeability is one of the main parameters in the study of hydrocarbon reservoirs which are needed to be measured correctly. The conventional methods are well testing and direct permeability measurement on the drilled core samples. Absolute air permeability of core plug samples is often measured in the laboratory which is cheap and fast.The absolute air permeability of a rock sample depends on the flowing mean pressure and type of gas and varies with changing them. Hence, measuring liquid permeability of fully saturated core sample or determination of corrected gas permeability which is equivalent to the liquid permeability is essential. This needs to spend enough time and budget. Klinkenberg investigated the effect of gas slippage in porous media and measured absolute permeability of different gases in various mean pressures. He yielded an equation for correcting absolute gas permeability and defining equivalent liquid permeability.The aim of this study was to present some practical relations for determining Klinkenberg corrected gas permeability of carbonate rocks by using their absolute air permeability, which has not been reported yet. For this purpose, Klinkenberg corrected gas permeability of 541 core plugs, with various petrophysical properties from different carbonate formations in the Southwest of Iran was measured. Exponential relations were obtained with very good correlation coefficients. Considering vast petrophysical properties of the studied samples, the yielded equations can be used to predict and determine equivalent liquid permeability of carbonate core samples of Southwest of Iran from their absolute air permeability.