A new technique for identification of flow units of shaly sandstone reservoirs

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The available techniques for identification of flow units of shaly sandstone reservoirs are based on different concepts, do not provide satisfactory results, and usually show discrepancy. This research is devoted to evaluating current techniques and developing a new concept capable to identify flow units constituting shaly sandstone reservoirs. A new mathematical model has been developed and validated to identify flow units in shaly sandstone reservoirs. The newly developed concept is called shale number (SN) and combines rock properties, fluid properties, petrophysical properties, and hydraulic flow conditions of shaly reservoir rocks. Fifteen actual, reserved, and fracture-free reservoir samples of shaly sandstone reservoir are used to develop SEM images and measure required rock properties of porosity, permeability, and oil/brine relative permeability. The developed data using SEM images and lab experiments are used to characterize the rocks, test feasibility of permeability-porosity crossplot and flow zone index (FZI) techniques, and validate the newly developed mathematical model. The results revealed that the SEM images are capable to identify the clay types as detrital clays and hairy illites plus clay distribution as filling micropores and coating grains of shaly sandstone formations. The results have proven that techniques of porosity–permeability crossplot and FZI have severe scattering degree of data and poor capability for identification of flow units of shaly sandstone reservoirs. The developed model of SN has been validated and showed superior accuracy in application. A plot of SN versus reservoir quality left( {sqrt {K/varphi } } right) provided unique straight lines passing through the origin and capable to delineate flow units of shaly sandstone reservoirs. The newly developed shale number overcomes several drawbacks of previous and current techniques used for identification of flow units. Therefore, the application of the new technique provides improved reservoir description of shaly sandstone reservoirs, which secures better development planning.