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Oil Shale

Learn! Blog

This year's AAPG Woodford Shale Forum focused on new information and optimization.  Included were presenters from the University of Oklahoma, Halliburton, Black Swan Energy Services, and Devon Energy just to name a few.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Division Column EMD

Oil shale is a rich petroleum source rock that never got buried deep enough to generate oil and gas. Worldwide, oil shale is a massive resource that potentially could yield a trillion barrels of oil and gas equivalent.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The technical program is in place for the third annual Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTeC), which will be held July 20-22 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, and there’s still time to save $100 by registering before June 8.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

This year's AAPG Woodford Shale Forum on 12 May 2015 in Oklahoma City, promises to be very insightful to geologists and engineers. Included is a special Entrepreneurship session focusing on being successful in the oil industry. Learn about special pricing for students and scholarships for individuals who have been laid off. 

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

Update your knowledge on world shale plays and take advantage of new opportunities using new technologies / techniques which you will learn with us at the AAPG International Shale Plays Workshop, 28-29 April 2015.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Director’s Corner

Equipping you to be a world-class geoscientist is our goal here at AAPG. It’s why we exist as a scientific and professional association: To assist you throughout your career to stay at the top of your game.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

At a time when some operators are slowing production of unconventional resources, and as oil and gas prices continue to fall, three companies have high hopes for producing shale oil north of the Arctic Circle for the first time in petroleum history.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Oil prices ... barreling downward. Natural gas prices ... up in flames. Gasoline prices ... tanking. The year got off to a scary start for the oil and gas industry

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Typically when runners are on their marks, they know the course ahead of them. However, as industry players anxiously wait for Mexico to open its hydrocarbon-rich fields to foreign investors, the shortest course to the pay zone is not so clear.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The call for abstracts has been issued for the next Unconventional Resources Technology Conference, which will be held July 20-22 in San Antonio.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
VG Abstract

Production from unconventional petroleum reservoirs includes petroleum from shale, coal, tight-sand and oil-sand. These reservoirs contain enormous quantities of oil and natural gas but pose a technology challenge to both geoscientists and engineers to produce economically on a commercial scale. These reservoirs store large volumes and are widely distributed at different stratigraphic levels and basin types, offering long-term potential for energy supply. Most of these reservoirs are low permeability and porosity that need enhancement with hydraulic fracture stimulation to maximize fluid drainage. Production from these reservoirs is increasing with continued advancement in geological characterization techniques and technology for well drilling, logging, and completion with drainage enhancement. Currently, Australia, Argentina, Canada, Egypt, USA, and Venezuela are producing natural gas from low permeability reservoirs: tight-sand, shale, and coal (CBM). Canada, Russia, USA, and Venezuela are producing heavy oil from oilsand. USA is leading the development of techniques for exploring, and technology for exploiting unconventional gas resources, which can help to develop potential gas-bearing shales of Thailand. The main focus is on source-reservoir-seal shale petroleum plays. In these tight rocks petroleum resides in the micro-pores as well as adsorbed on and in the organics. Shale has very low matrix permeability (nano-darcies) and has highly layered formations with differences in vertical and horizontal properties, vertically non-homogeneous and horizontally anisotropic with complicate natural fractures. Understanding the rocks is critical in selecting fluid drainage enhancement mechanisms; rock properties such as where shale is clay or silica rich, clay types and maturation , kerogen type and maturation, permeability, porosity, and saturation. Most of these plays require horizontal development with large numbers of wells that require an understanding of formation structure, setting and reservoir character and its lateral extension. The quality of shale-gas resources depend on thickness of net pay (>100 m), adequate porosity (>2%), high reservoir pressure (ideally overpressure), high thermal maturity (>1.5% Ro), high organic richness (>2% TOC), low in clay (<50%), high in brittle minerals (quartz, carbonates, feldspars), and favourable in-situ stress. During the past decade, unconventional shale and tight-sand gas plays have become an important supply of natural gas in the US, and now in shale oil as well. As a consequence, interest to assess and explore these plays is rapidly spreading worldwide. The high production potential of shale petroleum resources has contributed to a comparably favourable outlook for increased future petroleum supplies globally. Application of 2D and 3D seismic for defining reservoirs and micro seismic for monitoring fracturing, measuring rock properties downhole (borehole imaging) and in laboratory (mineralogy, porosity, permeability), horizontal drilling (downhole GPS), and hydraulic fracture stimulation (cross-linked gel, slick-water, nitrogen or nitrogen foam) is key in improving production from these huge resources with low productivity factors.

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