Explorer Emphasis Article

Unexpected treasures: The Bakken shale in Montana and North Dakota may one day be the Big Daddy of all shale plays.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

A beautiful enigma: The geological complexity of central Utah may intimidate some, but for many it projects a powerful potential.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

“Go West, young man …” and women, too, because there seems to be plenty of work for everyone: The Rocky Mountains beckon to oil and gas players like never before.

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

Unconventional resources such as coalbed methane will become progressively more important worldwide as population continues to grow at an unprecedented – and possibly unsustainable – rate.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

It's a mystery -- but maybe not for much longer. The Blackbeard West well, a tight hole that's been on hold since 2006, has a new operator who is excited about its future.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Myth busting: Conventional wisdom may suggest that the Gulf of Mexico has seen its best days, but some geologists believe the region's best days lie ahead.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

To help convention-goers 'Pursue The Unconventional,' EMD offers a forum to discuss the 'Future of Unconventional Resource Plays.'

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

New Mexico's Tucumcari Basin generates a buzz at the recent NAPE meeting, and with good reason; this old play is ready to add a new chapter to its history.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Geology is in the blood of this year's AAPG Outstanding Explorer, Dudley Hughes, who has 65 fields and over 200 million barrels of oil to his credit.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Deep in the heart of Texas . . . there are a lot of new approaches and strategies that are being applied in a lot of older areas, providing a fresh appearance to a familiar face.

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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