An improved stratigraphic modified lorenz (ISML) plot as a tool for describing efficiency of the hydraulic flow units (HFUs) in clastic and non-clastic reservoir sequences

Subdividing the reservoir sequences into some hydraulic flow units (HFUs) is one of the most serious challenges that face reservoir characterization and modeling in the oil industry. It may be a complicated process due to the heterogeneous nature of the hydrocarbons-bearing reservoirs, in particular in the case of non-clastic reservoirs. The stratigraphic modified Lorenz plot (SML) is one of the most important techniques that can be applied to subdivide the reservoir sequence into HFUs. It is based on an estimation of the flow and storage capacity of the studied sequence in an accumulative manner. Though the ability of the SML technique to slice the reservoir into HFUs; it roughly indicates the efficiency of the HFUs based on the slope range of each HFU line segment. In the present study, an improvement is proposed to accurately describe the efficiency of the discriminated HFUs based on estimating their slope angles using two proposed graphical and mathematical methods. The graphical method is a quick and practical one, while the other mathematical method is more accurate. The proposed methods were tested using the available data from 6 wells; in which four clastic and two carbonate reservoirs were sampled and subdivided into HFUs using the common SML technique and the efficiency of each HFU was measured using the proposed ISML technique. Article highlights Subdividing a given reservoir into hydraulic flow units is one of the most serious challenges. Stratigraphic Modified Lorenz plot is commonly applied to subdivide the reservoir rocks into HFUs. It is proposed to add a description for the HFUs efficiency in the SML plot using a graphical and mathematical technique. This improved SML plot (ISML) was verified using the available clastic and non-clastic core data from 6 wells.