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Explorer Article

Game changer? Horizontal drilling affirms more than a decade of E&P efforts in Canada’s Maritime provinces – the Frederick Brook Shale emerges as a potentially prolific play.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Blending of vintage 2-D seismic data and new 2-D spec seismic is helping map major faults by identifying even smaller structural features.Vintage 2-D seismic data

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

In for the long haul: A new study says the Marcellus Shale play, already a headline grabber, may get even larger.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Renaissance era: Geoscience research – often more practical than theoretical – is enjoying a strong revival.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Aubrey McClendon delivered the 2010 Michel T. Halbouty Lecture, “Shale Gas and America’s Future,” to a full house of about 750 at AAPG’s annual meeting

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

An overriding theme for the Canada Region always has been its close ties with the United States, especially in regards to providing a secure, stable supply of energy to them from a friendly neighbor to the north, Region president David Dolph said.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

A pair of scissors always sat next to the box of colored pencils on Kees Rutten’s desk, littered with seismic sections, time-to-depth curves and well logs.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Accidental discovery? One paper in the History of Petroleum Geology forum remembers Mobile Bay sharing the combination of luck, sound decisions and overcoming obstacles that led to its development.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Shaking up the status quo? Old becoming new? Such phrases are used to describe the revival of interest in the south Louisiana region. 

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Guess what: Does anyone know for sure how accurate the recent estimates of available U.S. natural gas resources are?

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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