In this paper, we investigate the apparent liquid permeability (ALP) of shale composed of inorganic matter (IOM) and organic matter (OM). An ALP model for porous media is developed based on water transport through a single nanopore, which is upscaled with the aid of fractal theory, taking the total organic carbon (TOC) content and structural parameters into account by considering a varying viscosity that depends on nanopore size. The proposed model results are effectively validated with data from previous research. The results show that (1) the confined water transport capacity increases with the contact angle and decreases with the maximum pore size, (2) the ALP increases with the TOC content for a given effective slip length and varying viscosity and the viscosity effect cannot be ignored, (3) and the fluid transport capacity is strongly dependent on the structural parameters of the pores, increasing with the pore size but decreasing with the pore fractal dimension.