Enhanced water saturation evaluation method using an improved electrical efficiency model: A case study of the Mishrif Formation, Iraq

Abstract

The accurate prediction of water saturation in reservoir exploration and development remains a significant challenge, particularly in regions like the Middle East with complex carbonate formations such as the Mishrif Formation. While geophysical logging data is widely utilized for this purpose, however, the complex pore structures render Archie's formula unsuitable, leading to non-Archie phenomenon in rock-electrical experiments. Although the electrical efficiency model has been employed in calculating water saturation in carbonate reservoirs, there has been no prior study incorporating electrical porosity for its refinement. This study enhances the conventional electrical efficiency model by introducing the concept of electrical porosity. The improvement aims to mitigate the impact of isolated mold pores and sparse regions of current density distribution on electrical efficiency, focusing on the Mishrif Formation and quantitatively computing water saturation. Initially, the study area is categorized into three distinct rock-physics types of reservoirs using the Winland R35 method, with respective electrical porosities calculated. Subsequently, these results are integrated with the enhanced electrical efficiency model, and trial calculations are performed using geophysical well-logging data, followed by a comparison with core data. The findings reveal that the improved electrical efficiency model yields an average relative error of only 10.36 % compared to core data, whereas the respective errors for Archie's formula and traditional electrical efficiency models are 17.65 % and 20.92 %, indicating enhanced accuracy with the improved approach. Across different reservoir types, a decrease in electrical porosity proportion is observed with diminishing pore-throat radius. Additionally, the consistency of this trend is validated by nuclear magnetic resonance logging data. Lastly, the necessity of reservoir rock-physics type classification for electrical porosity computation is confirmed. For heterogeneous reservoirs, direct calculation of electrical porosity is infeasible, thus underscoring the essential groundwork of reservoir rock-physics type delineation. This study improves water saturation prediction accuracy and applicability by introducing electrical porosity to refine the conventional electrical efficiency model, holding significant implications for the exploration and development of complex reservoirs.