The world is gradually moving toward a severe energy
crisis, with
an ever-increasing demand for energy overstepping its supply. Therefore,
the energy crisis in the world has shed important light on the need
for enhanced oil recovery to provide an affordable energy supply.
Inaccurate reservoir characterization may lead to the failure of enhanced
oil recovery projects. Thus, the accurate establishment of reservoir
characterization techniques is required to successfully plan and execute
the enhanced oil recovery projects. The main objective of this research
is to obtain an accurate approach that can be used to estimate rock
types, flow zone indicators, permeability, tortuosity, and irreducible
water saturation for uncored wells based on electrical rock properties
that were obtained from only logging tools. The new technique is obtained
by modifying the Resistivity Zone Index (RZI) equation that was presented
by Shahat et al. by taking the tortuosity factor into consideration.
When true formation resistivity (R
t) and
inverse porosity (1/Φ) are correlated on a log–log scale,
unit slope parallel straight lines are produced, where each line represents
a distinct electrical flow unit (EFU). Each line’s intercept
with the y-axis at 1/Φ = 1 yields a unique
parameter specified as the Electrical Tortuosity Index (ETI). The
proposed approach was validated successfully by testing it on log
data from 21 logged wells and comparing it to the Amaefule technique,
which was applied to 1135 core samples taken from the same reservoir.
Electrical Tortuosity Index (ETI) values show marked accuracy for
representing reservoir compared with Flow Zone Indicator (FZI) values
obtained by the Amaefule technique and Resistivity Zone Index (RZI)
values obtained by the Shahat et al. technique, with correlation coefficients
of determination (R
2) values equal to
0.98 and 0.99, respectively. Hence, by using the new technique, the
Flow Zone Indicator, permeability, tortuosity, and irreducible water
saturation were estimated and then compared with the obtained results
from the core analysis, which showed a great match with the R
2-values of 0.98, 0.96, 0.98, and 0.99, respectively.