Where do we stand – with reference to the estimation of reservoir permeability – when the degree of reservoir’s heterogeneity (spatial variability) remains high?
For highly heterogeneous reservoirs, do we really have a control over the flow variables – that gets significantly affected by spatial uncertainty?
How long will we be content with the deduction of ‘average permeability’ associated with the economic and logistic limitations (apart from scarcity of field data and the lack of precision in the measurement-devices)?
Permeability being a scale-dependent property (permeability varying considerably over the observation scale), will it be ever feasible to up-scale laboratory-scale investigations into a larger field-scale representation (knowing the fact that the Cartesian/axial flow pattern does not hold Dupuit’s assumption associated with the core-flooding or Gas/Liquid Permeameters)?
Can we at least successfully relate ‘field measurements’ with the ‘permeability field’ (knowing the fact that the continuous extraction of oil/gas would lead to compaction of sandstone reservoirs; and a significant reorientation of secondary porosities in fractured/carbonate reservoirs)?
Can we consider the concept of ‘Equivalent Permeability’ when the ‘mean flow pattern’ associated with a petroleum reservoir remains ‘divergent’ (where potential theory cannot be made use of)? If so, can we simulate ‘transient well-flows’ in a strongly heterogeneous petroleum reservoir (leaving aside the impact of reservoir’s boundaries)?
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