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Completion and Production

Explorer Emphasis Article

Check out some of the major discoveries reported over the past year.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

A toast! A toast to Ida Glenn No. 1 ... one hundred years ago the Ida Glenn No. 1 came in and began Oklahoma's oil legacy.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The basic rules for finding oil and gas were formulated so long ago that most of them have been forgotten. A review of these rules would be in order for many contemporary exploration managers.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Let's make a deal: Summer in Houston is about to get even hotter thanks to the Summer NAPE, a prospects and properties expo that carries the AAPG banner.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

To optimize subsurface geophysical interpretations, it is beneficial to place seismic attributes into the proper regional geological context; knowledge of regional geology may assist exploration/exploitation efforts in advance by high-grading attribute selection and attribute intersection for purposes of risk analysis.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Recent technological developments plus a new understanding of the region’s geology are making the icy and harsh waters offshore Labrador attractive.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Since Cognac was discovered in 1975 (we're talking oil fields here!) over 200 commercial fields have been discovered in the Gulf of Mexico province.

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

The impressively large response to the call for papers is an indication that the 2004 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Cancun, Mexico, is shaping up to be one of the year's most important meetings.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

A big challenge for modern seismic is the ability to image complicated structures. Fold and thrustbelts are characterized by rapid velocity variations due to juxtaposed rock types.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The Jonah Field in the northern Greater Green River Basin, one of the largest gas discoveries in the last decade and a poster child for basin centered gas. The Standard Draw-Echo Springs Field in the Washakie Basin, which was found in the 1970s and was one of the original fields determined to be a large, basin centered gas accumulation.

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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