Assessing accuracy of gas-driven permeability measurements: a comparative study of diverse Hassler-cell and probe permeameter devicesa.

Permeability is one of the most important petrophysical parameters to describe the reservoir potential of sedimentary rocks, contributing to problems in hydrology, geothermics, or hydrocarbon reservoir analysis. Outcrop analog studies, well core measuremeasurements, 5 or individual sample analysis take advantage of a variety of commercially available devices for permeability measurements. Very often, permeability data derived from different devices need to be merged within one study, e.g. outcrop mini-permeametry and lab-based core plug measurements. To enhance accuracy of different gas-driven permeability measurements, device-specific aberrations need to be taken into account The application of simple one-to-one correlations may draw a wrong picture of permeability trends. For this purpose, transform equations need to be established. This study presents a detailed comparison of permeability data derived from a selection of commonly used Hassler cells and probe permeameters. As a result of individual cross-plots, typical aberrations and transform equations are elaborated which enable corrections for the specific permeameters. Permeability measurements of the commercially available ErgoTech Gas Permeameter and the TinyPerm II probe-permeameter are well-comparable over the entire range of permeability, with R2 = 0.967. Major aberrations are identified among the TinyPerm II and the mini-permeameter/Hassler-cell combination at Darmstadt University, which need to be corrected and standardized within one study. However, transforms are critical to their use, as aberrations are frequently limited to certain permeability intervals. In the presented examples, deviations typically tend to occur in the lower permeability range < 10 mD. Applying standardizations which consider these aberration intervals strongly improve the comparability of permeability datasets and facilitate the combination of measurement principles. There-fore, the utilization of such correlation tests is highly recommended for all kinds of reservoir studies using integrated permeability databases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]