Explorer Regions and Sections

The official technical program and registration announcement has been mailed and registration is now available for Athens 2007 -- a conference that promises to be a significant meeting for both the profession and the science of geology.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Utah is a happening place, where the industry action just keeps escalating.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

With so much money pouring into upstream oil and gas, start-up companies have discovered the practice of investor shopping.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

They say when one door closes, another door opens. Four experienced managers at Burlington Resources didn’t hesitate when ConocoPhillips acquired their company in March 2006.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Regions and Sections

In the April EXPLORER we began sharing proven ideas for effective operation of the AAPG Regions and Sections, a recommendation from this winter’s AAPG Leadership Conference.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

It doesn’t take an official proclamation to recognize that unconventional hydrocarbons have catapulted to the top on the oil patch buzz-o-meter scale.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

The southwest Wyoming region has almost everything you could want in a Rocky Mountain hydrocarbon province.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

During a luncheon talk at the 2006 AAPG Annual Convention in Houston, speaker Peter Dea predicted the Rocky Mountains would become the kingpin of domestic natural gas production owing principally to unconventional reservoir development.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Alternative energy is where it’s at these days in the minds of plenty of folks who are looking at the potential market for some mighty esoteric sources in some cases.

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

Dissemination of information is the prime directive for AAPG -- and by the time you read this column, AAPG will be in the middle of or just past our greatest period of “dissemination” for the year.

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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