E. Huenges et G. Zimmermann, Rock permeability and fluid pressure at the KTB - Implications from laboratory - and drill hole - Measurements, OIL GAS SCI, 54(6), 1999, pp. 689-694
Rock permeability and the fluid pressure were investigated at different sca
les at the two drill holes of the Continental Deep Drilling Program (KTB).
Drill hole tests and fluid inclusion investigations both implicate the exis
tence of hydrostatic fluid pressure in situ with respect to salinity of the
formation fluid. Matrix permeability and in situ values from hydraulic tes
ts differ up to three decades with higher values in situ. Further on the pr
essure dependence of core permeability and in situ determined values differ
significantly. All these observed effects support the well known theory of
scale variance. This conclusion is supported by observations of hydraulic
communications between both drill holes. These scale effects implicate a pr
onounced hydraulic heterogeneity of the KTB surroundings. Therefore, stocha
stic network modelling with parameters derived from structural borehole mea
surements and under the consideration of the observed permeabilities were p
erformed Under the presumption. of existing driving forces fluid transport
takes place dominantly on discrete connected pathways characterised by frac
ture width, fracture length and fracture orientation and is subordinate in
the rock matrix.