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Explorer Article

Partial results from a federal oil and gas reserve assessment of domestic unconventional gas reserves will be presented this month in Laramie, Wyo.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

A global assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources has led to some surprising geologic insights regarding petroleum systems.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Companies eyeing exploration in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska see prospects there as good to great, despite a scarcity of previous drilling there.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Regions and Sections

An idea rooted in 1998 during an informal meeting with the vice chairman of the AAPG International Liaison Committee led to the creation of the Association of Petroleum Geologists (APG-India) in February 2000.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Surprise! A giant gas field currently being explored has a trillion cubic feet of natural gas every seven square miles -- and it's just north of Fort Worth, Texas.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

A salt body in the Gulf of Mexico proved the perfect proving grounds for a new geologic technique designed to reduce risk and improve seismic imaging both beneath and below the structure.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

What was once unconventional can become commonplace. Remember when fixing a lunch in a microwave oven was rare?

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

According to our EMD president's report to the Advisory Council and the House of Delegates at the Houston AAPG meeting, coalbed methane (CBM) resources — exploration and production — represent one of 'our most active areas.'

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Coming soon: A new USGS resource assessment of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, an area that may hold the key to Alaska's exploration future.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Regions and Sections

Cairo Meeting Set For October 27-30

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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