Available online at www.scholarsresearchlibrary.com Scholars Research Library Archives of Physics Research, 2010, 1 (4): 32-40 (http://scholarsresearchlibrary.com/archive.html) ISSN 0976-0970 CODEN (USA): APRRC7 32 Scholar Research Library Correlative study of laboratory bulk thermal conductivity and thermal conductivity obtained from wire-line Logs in the Niger delta region of Southern Nigeria. 1 Akpabio, G. T.; 2 George, N. J.; and 3 Udofia, K.M. 1 University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Southern Nigeria 2 Akwa Ibom Polytechnic, Akwa Ibom State, Southern Nigeria, 3 University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, Wales, United Kingdom ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT Correlative study by regression analysis has been undertaken to establish the linearity between the measurements of bulk thermal conductivity obtained from wire line logs and the laboratory methods. In all the locations, there are positive and strong correlation coefficients between the two methods. For each of the well locations, wire line log conductivity k w is noticeably greater than laboratory bulk conductivity k lab by approximately 27% on the average. Correlative functions or models have been established from the data obtained by K lab and K w to show the linearity relation between the bulk thermal conductivity by laboratory (K lab ) and wire line log bulk thermal conductivity (K w ). In all, the well locations in the study area considered, there is unique pattern of distributions of effective thermal conductivity by K lab and K w as shown in relevant graphs. Keyword: Correlation, bulk thermal conductivity, effective thermal conductivity, wire line log and laboratory measurement. ______________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Thermal conductivity k, is one of the major properties of the sediments that are from time to time evaluated in a well. It is primarily a function of mineralogy, porosity, pore thermal conductivity and temperature. It is the quantity of heat that will flow through a unit area of material in a unit time when unit different of temperature exists between the faces of a unit thickness of material. The unit is watt per metre per Kelvin (wm -1 k -1 ). Thermal conductivity depends chiefly on the temperature gradient and since some materials have better conductivity than others, it also depends on the material of the sediments or object [1, 2].