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Completion and Production

Explorer Article

Increasing global concern about climate change and its impact on the environment and society has led to a variety of strategies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and to remove COâ‚‚ from the atmosphere and find places to store it. Many companies are hard at work to perfect methods of carbon capture, use, and storage. Franek Hasiuk, associate scientist at Kansas Geological Survey, said CCUS is the best technology available to reduce emissions produced by the global economy. Hasiuk is part of a team of scientists working on the Integrated Midcontinent Stacked Carbon Storage Hub, a project to investigate subsurface geology in southwest Kansas and southwest Nebraska and demonstrate the viability of injecting COâ‚‚ into underground rock layers.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Unconventional resource development has a remarkable history, combining breakthroughs and advances in both technology and geoscience. The pace of progress might have slowed in recent years, but that history is still being written.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

New ground-breaking advances are currently being made at the Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy using methods borrowed from the oil and gas industry for unconventional hydrocarbon development. Recently, geothermal history was made when Utah FORGE successfully completed the first of two highly deviated deep wells in the hot, hard granite that will form the geothermal reservoir.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer President’s Column

If you remember from my last column, this is a three-part series on my thoughts on science, membership and budget. I talked about budget last time … we are still working on it, so let’s talk science. The reason most professionals join AAPG is for access to science. That’s not just my opinion – it’s what members tell us. AAPG is very good about disseminating the work of our members and other professionals around the world. That’s our mission.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

As discussed in part 1 of this article, when it comes to the attributes used in equation 1 for seismically determining shale capacity, it is difficult to make a manual choice for the cut off values. To alleviate such a problem, application of machine learning techniques could be useful and thus worth exploring.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

The goal of reservoir characterization work carried out for a shale play is to enhance hydrocarbon production by identifying the favorable drilling targets. The drilling operators have the perception that in organic-rich shale formations, horizontal wells can be drilled anywhere, in any direction, and hydraulic fracturing at regular intervals along the length of the laterals can then lead to better production. Given that this understanding holds true, all fracturing stages are expected to contribute impartially to the production. However, studies have shown that only 50 percent of the fracturing stages contribute to overall production. This suggests that repetitive drilling of wells and their completions without attention to their placement must be avoided, and smart drilling needs to be followed by operators.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Considering that success or failure of unconventional exploration is largely dependent on drilling horizontal wells in the right area and fracturing efficiently, and considering also that geomechanical modeling facilitates these processes, it is easy to see that when industry professionals have a better perspective of the subsurface mechanics, the better chance they have for increased production. That is the point of geomechanical modeling: safer drilling and increased production.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer President’s Column

We have been through a month of lockdown due to the coronavirus, and in that time, we have seen oil prices go into negative numbers. This is paper barrels! The commodity market has a place in our business and it’s helpful to understand the history and how the commodity market has changed our industry.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

Shale resource plays are associated with low permeability, so hydraulic fracturing is required for their stimulation and production. In order to enhance the flow of fluids with hydraulic fracturing, it is vital to understand the stress field distribution. The efficiency and effectiveness of a hydraulic fracture stimulation are predicated on adequate horizontal well placement in the subsurface. For that purpose, the horizontal wells are usually drilled in the direction of minimal horizontal stress so that hydraulic fracturing takes place in the direction of maximal stress that ensures better reservoir contact and production, which also depends on how a complex fracture network is created by induced fractures.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The maturing carbon market is a major driver for carbon capture, utilization and storage projects. Both the subsurface technical knowledge and related data sets of the petroleum industry are major inputs required for the world to successfully move toward a carbon-neutral and sustainable energy future. To that end, one of the goals of the Division of Environmental Geosciences in representing AAPG is to promote what petroleum geologists can offer during an evolving energy future.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Tuesday, 16 April 2013, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

The goal of this e-symposium is to provide an overview of the latest trends and technologies for water management for oil and gas drilling, completions, and production.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

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