ABSTRACT
For decades, a constant objective of wireline logging has been to obtain a continuous permeability log. Except for a few attempts such as the search for an acoustic log response that could directly yield a permeability indicator, most of the initial efforts have been directed towards deriving permeability from the combination of porosity with some other log-derived property related to the type of pore geometry. In sandstones, excellent results have recently been obtained with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logging that, by itself, provides information on both porosity and pore size distribution. In carbonates, the NMR approach sometimes breaks down, but the information about carbonate rock facies carried by continuous electrical images of the borehole walls has, when coupled with conventional porosity logs, generated continuous permeability indicators in complex carbonate formations.
