Repeatable and reliable brine permeability measurements on sand and sandstone samples often have been suspect because of the passible occurrence of fines movement and migration. This is especially true for unconsolidated sands. To avoid the effects of fines movement and to isolate the effects of stress and compaction, oil permeability measurements were made by flowing refined oil through turbidite sand samples prepared at initial water saturation, S-wi. In this state, any fines present are presumably water-wet and are thus immobilized in the water phase. The methodology far doing these measurements is briefly reviewed, and data from several deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) turbidite sands is presented. By eliminating fines migration as an issue, compaction effects on permeability are shown to be quite significant for these sands. Based an simple scaling arguments as applied to tubular laminar flow. a permeability model has been developed and Found to be in good agreement with the experimental data. This model provides a reliable means of estimating permeability given porosity, initial water saturation, and grain-size distribution. The model is not turbidite specific; it may be applicable to other sand depositional environments.