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Explorer Emphasis Article

As Colorado goes, so goes the nation when it comes to energy and environmental policy and the court of public opinion.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Some surprising findings bubbled up in a recent study of methane geochemistry in the Appalachian Basin. The findings could complicate the jobs of investigators trying to determine how stray methane gets into water wells.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

May 14, 2014, Marks the 100th anniversary of the initial petroleum discovery at Turner Valley. The field sits at the leading edge of the Foothills Belt of the Rocky Mountains, just to the southwest of Calgary, Canada.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Division Column EMD

When you need in-depth, science-based information on shale plays and issues, AAPG past president Scott Tinker has the reputation as the go-to guy.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The technical program is now in place and registrations are being accepted for the second annual Unconventional Resources Technology (URTeC) Conference, which will be held Aug. 25-27 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

The Croatian Hydrocarbons Agency used AAPG’s Annual Convention and Exhibition (ACE) in Houston last month as an opportunity to formally announce that the country’s first offshore license round opened April 2 of this year.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

There is intense interest by the industry in the Keathley Canyon and Garden Banks region of the Gulf of Mexico following major discoveries there, like BP’s Gila discovery announced late last year, and the multibillion-barrel Tiber oil field. Consequently, rival geoscience companies will offer competing surveys of the area.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

When it comes to U.S. energy policy, there arguably is no topic that creates more heated debate than that of the federal OCS (Outer Continental Shelf) leasing program.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

America’s recent ascent to the high-level status of a hydrocarbon producer worthy of a significant presence on the world stage of leading producers stems from something new and a rebirth of something old.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

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.

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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