A novel approach to assessing the anisotropic permeability parameters of fractured media

Abstract

The fracture permeability in is very high and directional, which brings a series of problems for the petroleum reservoir development, such as earlier water breakthrough and low sweep efficiency. It is vital to accurately characterize fractures and acquire the parameters of fracture permeability to alleviate these issues, which are favorable for well pattern design and flow modeling. Permeability tensor is employed to comprehensively and expediently reflect the effect of fracture anisotropy on the fluid diversion. Based on information of fracture log and production, the complete permeability tensors of single group fractures and multiple group fractures are identified, where the coordinate transformation theory and tensor property are used. With the simplified form of the derived full permeability tensor, the anisotropic parameters, principal values and principal directions of permeability for the fractured reservoir, can then be calculated. The proposed method integrates the static characterization and percolation feature of fractures and can be applied merely into field practices of naturally fractured reservoir. This work is beneficial for the management of fractured reservoir and optimization of field development.