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Stratigraphic Traps

Explorer Article

Coming soon to your desk: Dozens of opportunities for you to become an even-better professional geologist.

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 Geophysical Corner

Intriguing seismic examples are being developed in multi-component seismic research at the Bureau of Economic Geology, specifically examples documenting which one of the S-wave seismic modes images a key geologic feature better than does the P-wave mode -- the only seismic mode many explorationists have ever used.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Call it a Russian miracle. Despite political, environmental and economic pressures, Russia’s Sakhalin oil and gas projects continue to advance.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Environmental concerns are a major factor in all U.S. exploration, but it is especially true in the West. That includes Wyoming’s Pinedale Field, a tight gas sand giant in the northwest part of the Greater Green River Basin.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

For decades – and for many reasons – Libya was off the exploration map, but that’s changed. Today this country with the Mediterranean climate couldn’t be hotter.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

A toast! A toast to Ida Glenn No. 1 ... one hundred years ago the Ida Glenn No. 1 came in and began Oklahoma's oil legacy.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The basic rules for finding oil and gas were formulated so long ago that most of them have been forgotten. A review of these rules would be in order for many contemporary exploration managers.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Who's got the last laugh now? A number of companies passed on the chance to explore the Buzzard prospect in the North Sea. One didn't.

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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