A clear understanding of rock stress and its effect on permeability is important in a coupled simulation where fluid production causes a significant increase in the effective stress within a reservoir. Changing the in-situ rock stress state can alter the reservoir properties. As a result, porosity and permeability could be affected due to the rearrangement of rock particles and the redistribution of sensitive pore structures. It is known that permeability is more sensitive to stress changes than porosity. Permeability reduction can range between 10% and 30% as reported in previous publications, this is within the elastic.
