Explorer Division Column DPA

In the interest of continuing my theme of “Spreading the Word” about AAPG’s Division of Professional Affairs, here’s an update on some exciting events organized by DPA members for the spring of 2016. Many of you may be familiar with the Playmaker concept, as we have previously held five very successful events.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Since shale plays began revolutionizing the oil and gas industry, North America has been the dominant continent in making them successful. But a strong contender some 5,000 miles south of the U.S. border is beginning to turn heads.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

While many are working to forecast when the price of oil might reach $80 a barrel again, renowned international strategist and geopolitical analyst Peter Zeihan, the author of “The Accidental Superpower,” predicts in stunning detail the rising and declining energy plays of 2025 and the countries that will ultimately triumph as the world’s leading producers.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Policy Watch

For over two years Congress has complained about delays in the government permitting process for liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals, and several bills were introduced to accelerate the processing of natural gas export applications.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

While exploration has slowed in many parts of the world in response to the industry’s lagging downturn, India is moving full steam ahead to encourage exploration and production on a domestic and international scale.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Energy Policy Blog

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released an analysis of technologies available to cut water use in hydraulic fracturing and thermoelectric power plant cooling to identify how water-scarce areas of the country could benefit from these technologies (GAO-15-545). Perhaps of special interest to readers is the GAO analysis of waterless or low-water stimulation fluids, although GAO concludes they are either unproven or applicable to only a few geologic formations. Thermoelectric plant cooling, represents 38 percent of U.S. water withdrawals. However, natural gas produced using hydraulic fracturing and natural gas combined cycle power generation reduces water use in power generation by up to 60% relative to coal and nuclear plants.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The 2015 annual AAPG Eastern Section meeting will be held Sept. 20-22 at the Union Station and Crowne Plaza Hotel complex in downtown Indianapolis.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The Wolfcamp formation in the Permian’s Delaware Basin kicks out impressive volumes of hydrocarbons. The play is considered to have great promise, as it’s currently viewed as a kind of adolescent in terms of its maturity.

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

Unconventional resources have changed the exploration and production business and are changing our profession. It’s a change for the better, where today geoscientists and engineers work closely to identify prospective areas, drill them and optimize recovery of hydrocarbons from the reservoir.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Focusing on rocks, learning from others and implementing new technologies were the keys to success identified during a talk on “Evolution of Unconventional Oil Plays from Early Innovations to Future Challenges,” at the DPA luncheon held during the recent AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Denver.

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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Request a visit from Ameed Ghori!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

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