Dielectric relaxation in oil-bearing clayey rocks

The dielectric properties of the bentonite–oil–salt solution mixtures with different water and oil saturation were experimentally studied in the frequency range of 10 kHz to 4 GHz at 25–60 °C. It has been established that besides the region of the Debye water relaxation, there are two more relaxation regions resulting from the interfacial interaction of the mixture components in this frequency range. To describe the dielectric permittivity and equivalent conductivity of the mixture, a spectroscopic model taking into account the multifrequency relaxation is proposed. The dependence of the model parameters on the water saturation and temperatures of the samples has been determined. The experimental data are compared with the modeling results, and the error of prediction for the dielectric permittivity and conductivity of mixture is estimated using the proposed model.