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Oil Shale

Explorer Emphasis Article

The word on the street indicates the next potentially big U.S. shale oil play is … drumroll, please: The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS).

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

A multi-disciplinary team of geoscientists has developed a new framework for the north Red Sea region – and their findings may cause a new reassessment of the area’s resource potential.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The fast-approaching AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Milan will showcase – in association with EMD – a comprehensive unconventional resources program with global scope, ranging in scale from the nanopore to the petroleum system, exploring the latest in applied geoscience and engineering.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Frack checking: The ongoing and intensifying public debate over the impact of hydraulic fracturing is about to get an infusion of scientific observations.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

The potential of Wyoming's Niobrara shale play will be in the spotlight during this year's AAPG Rocky Mountain Section meeting, set June 25-29 in Cheyenne, Wyo.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Oil and liquids-rich gas deposits are hot targets today among prospectors and operators – and the action in the self-sourced Niobrara shale play in the Rocky Mountain region is about as fired up as it can be.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

A significant new Bakken Shale oil play has finally warmed up in northwest Montana.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Doug Strickland dreamed big when his work led to discovery of the Covenant oil field in central Utah.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Once it became clear that natural gas prices likely will remain dismal for some time, many companies working the shale gas plays recognized they had best punch up their production by adding some respectably-priced oil and liquids-rich gas.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Geomechanics’ value: The deeper we get into shale plays, the more obvious it becomes that no two plays are the same.

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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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

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