Oil Prices Fluctuate as OPEC+ Reconsiders October Supply Boost - 05 September, 2024 07:30 AM
Trump Vows to Halve Energy Costs in 12 Months - 05 September, 2024 07:30 AM
Judge's Ruling Could End Gulf Oil Production - 05 September, 2024 07:30 AM
Frac'ing Shifts US Oil Production Away from California - 05 September, 2024 07:30 AM
Strike Energy Strikes Major Gas Discoveries in Australia - 05 September, 2024 07:30 AM
This year, URTeC has added an enhanced preview of “Coming Attractions.” In addition to looking at established plays, URTeC will provide significant information about emerging unconventional resource possibilities in North America and around the world.
The Department of Energy (DOE) envisions that recent advances in subsurface mapping, data collection, data dissemination and leveraging of oil and gas industry techniques can translate into widespread commercial adoption of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS).
As the Bakken, Eagle Ford, Marcellus and other shale plays make national news, the Cane Creek reservoir might be the dark horse poised to emerge as another major shale play.
A crucial aspect of these fluid inclusions… is that they endure in the geologic record although the parent fluids move on. As a result, a given sample contains the fluid history of the area. In other words, despite being microscopic they’re jam-packed with information.
To be an innovator in the never-ending search for new oil and gas resources, a good geologist needs to escape the stagnating perils of paradigm paralysis by being equal parts Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.
The estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) is one of the most significant properties of tight-gas sandstone reservoirs, but it remains difficult to predict. Estimated ultimate recovery is dependent on the success of stimulation by hydraulic fracturing, the existence and connectivity of natural fractures, and as illustrated in this article, the pore structure of the matrix.
Robert G. Loucks, a senior research scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin, is one of this year’s Robert R. Berg Outstanding Research Award winners.
Shale formations can confound even the savviest geoscientist when it comes to determining the inner workings of the rock. After expert evaluation, even the most attractive prospecting deal can be a tough sell. And there’s almost always a new piece to each of these puzzles that requires some sophisticated high-tech explaining.
Multiple techniques are available to construct three-dimensional reservoir models. This study uses comparative analysis to test the impact of applying four commonly used stochastic modeling techniques to capture geologic heterogeneity and fluid-flow behavior in fluvial-dominated deltaic reservoirs of complex facies architecture: (1) sequential indicator simulation; (2) object-based modeling; (3) multiple-point statistics (MPS); and (4) spectral component geologic modeling.
The Boat Harbour Formation constitutes the upper part of the Lower Ordovician St. George Group on the Northern Peninsula, western Newfoundland. It ranges in thickness from 140 m (459 ft) at Main Brook to 96 m (315 ft) at Daniel's Harbour. Dolomitization of the carbonate sequence is more pervasive in the lower 30 to 40 m (98 to 131 ft) at Main Brook, whereas at Daniel's Harbour, the section is entirely dolomitized.
The Betic hinterland, in the westernmost Mediterranean, constitutes a unique example of a stack of metamorphic units. Using a three-dimensional model for the crustal structure of the Betics-Rif area this talk will address the role of crustal flow simultaneously to upper-crustal low-angle faulting in the origin and evolution of the topography.
Request a visit from Juan I. Soto!
Local sea-level changes are not simply a function of global ocean volumes but also the interactions between the solid Earth, the Earth’s gravitational field and the loading and unloading of ice sheets. Contrasting behaviors between Antarctica and Scotland highlight how important the geologic structure beneath the former ice sheets is in determining the interactions between ice sheets and relative sea levels.
Request a visit from Alex Simms!
For well over a century there have been conflicting indications of the strength of the crust and of faults and what controls them. Much of our ignorance comes quite naturally from the general inaccessibility of the crust to measurement--in contrast with our understanding of the atmosphere, which is much more accessible to observation as well as more rapidly changing. Crustal strength is best understood in deforming sedimentary basins where the petroleum industry has made great contributions, particularly in deforming petroleum basins because of the practical need to predict. In this talk we take a broad look at key issues in crustal strength and deformation and what we can learn from boreholes, earthquakes, active fault systems, and toy models.
Request a visit from John Suppe!
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.
Request a visit from Ameed Ghori!
The carbonate sequences that were deposited in the now exhumed Tethyan Ocean influence many aspects of our lives today, either by supplying the energy that warms our homes and the fuel that powers our cars or providing the stunning landscapes for both winter and summer vacations. They also represent some of the most intensely studied rock formations in the world and have provided geoscientists with a fascinating insight into the turbulent nature of 250 Million years of Earth’s history. By combining studies from the full range of geoscience disciplines this presentation will trace the development of these carbonate sequences from their initial formation on the margins of large ancient continental masses to their present day locations in and around the Greater Mediterranean and Near East region. The first order control on growth patterns and carbonate platform development by the regional plate-tectonic setting, underlying basin architecture and fluctuations in sea level will be illustrated. The organisms that contribute to sequence development will be revealed to be treasure troves of forensic information. Finally, these rock sequences will be shown to contain all the ingredients necessary to form and retain hydrocarbons and the manner in which major post-depositional tectonic events led to the formation of some of the largest hydrocarbon accumulations in the world will be demonstrated.
Request a visit from Keith Gerdes!
Subsurface risk and uncertainty are recognized as very important considerations in petroleum geoscience. And even when volume estimates are relatively accurate, the reservoir characteristics that determine well placement and performance can remain highly uncertain. In analyzing results and work practices, three aspects of uncertainty are reviewed here.
Request a visit from Kurt W. Rudolph!
Physics is an essential component of geophysics but there is much that physics cannot know or address.
Request a visit from John Castagna!
Engineering of wind farms, development of carbon sequestration projects in shelfal waters, the proliferation of communication cables that connect the world, all of these things suggest that it is time to re-examine what we know about shelf processes both updip-to-downdip and along shoreline, and the influence of shelf processes on erosion and transport of sediments.
Request a visit from Lesli Wood!
Three-dimensional (3D) seismic-reflection surveys provide one of the most important data types for understanding subsurface depositional systems. Quantitative analysis is commonly restricted to geophysical interpretation of elastic properties of rocks in the subsurface. Wide availability of 3D seismic-reflection data and integration provide opportunities for quantitative analysis of subsurface stratigraphic sequences. Here, we integrate traditional seismic-stratigraphic interpretation with quantitative geomorphologic analysis and numerical modeling to explore new insights into submarine-channel evolution.
Request a visit from Jacob Covault!
As oil and gas exploration and production occur in deeper basins and more complex geologic settings, accurate characterization and modeling of reservoirs to improve estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) prediction, optimize well placement and maximize recovery become paramount. Existing technologies for reservoir characterization and modeling have proven inadequate for delivering detailed 3D predictions of reservoir architecture, connectivity and rock quality at scales that impact subsurface flow patterns and reservoir performance. Because of the gap between the geophysical and geologic data available (seismic, well logs, cores) and the data needed to model rock heterogeneities at the reservoir scale, constraints from external analog systems are needed. Existing stratigraphic concepts and deposition models are mostly empirical and seldom provide quantitative constraints on fine-scale reservoir heterogeneity. Current reservoir modeling tools are challenged to accurately replicate complex, nonstationary, rock heterogeneity patterns that control connectivity, such as shale layers that serve as flow baffles and barriers.
Request a visit from Tao Sun!
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