Abstract
A core flooding test was performed on three limestone specimens taken from South Pars oil field under a confining pressure of 1−20 MPa to investigate the effect of lateral pressure on the permeability. Results of the core flooding test showed that a decrease in the permeability with an increase in the lateral pressure was caused by the pore closure based on a logarithmic relation. The core flooding test results were used in a numerical modeling to study the permeability and anisotropic tensor changes of the reservoir pressure occurred due to the change in the effective stress (pore pressure reduction) around the well. The numerical modeling results showed that the permeability parallel to the maximum stress was higher than the one in other directions. The reservoir pressure drop in the maximum stress direction was also higher than the one in other directions over time. Furthermore, the anisotropy of the reservoir pressure was a logarithmic function of the ratio of the horizontal stresses and permeability known as effective factors in determining the number and density of wells in an oil field