Great breakthroughs have been made in strategic exploration and development of shale oil and gas. Shale gas has become the focus of global natural gas exploration, and shale oil plays an important role in unconventional oil and gas exploration. Recently the most important driving force for the rapid growth of crude oil production in world is the shale oil revolution in the United States, whose rapid development has made profound impact on the international energy supply-and-demand scenario. According to EIA's prediction, by 2050, shale gas will contribute about 3/4 of the U.S. natural gas production, and shale oil will account for 2/3 of the total U.S. crude oil production.
China's shale oil and gas resources also have great potential. Although it started late in the exploration and development of shale oil and gas, some important oil and gas discoveries have been made in recent years, such as the Fuling Shale Gas Field of Sinopec, the Weiyuan Shale Gas Field of PetroChina in the Sichuan Basin. Some breakthroughs of shale oil discoveries with Pilot shale oil development, particularly in the terrestrial shale systems in the Bohai Bay Basin. It is foreseeable that China's shale oil and gas exploration and development will enter into a period of rapid development.
One of the important driving factors for the rapid and large-scale development of shale oil and gas is the breakthrough in the theory and understanding of shale oil and gas geology. Conventional petroleum exploration mainly focused on trap formation, while shale petroleum exploration focused on source rocks which are not only hydrocarbon-generating horizons, but also shale oil and gas reservoirs. Shale reservoirs need to be produced through horizontal drilling the hydraulic fracturing. Therefore, the exploration and development of unconventional oil and gas resources, represented by shale oil and gas, have not only broadened the field of oil and gas exploration, but also promoted the development of new petroleum geology concept and technological innovation.
To further promote the theoretical research and technological innovation on shale oil and gas exploration and development, an AAPG Geoscience Technology Workshop will be held in November 2019 in the Dagang Oilfield in Tianjin to be co-hosted by the Chinese Petroleum Society, China University of Petroleum (East China) and the Dagang Oilfield, PetroChina. The workshop will invite well-known experts and scholars to discuss the latest theoretical progress and technological innovation on shale oil and gas, and to exchange views on key issues, research directions and challenges.
The topics of the GTW will include but not limited to:
- Terrestrial and marine fine-grained sediment (shale) systems: similarities and differences
- Effective sources in terrestrial and marine depositional settings
- Shale reservoir characterization: method, workflow and case studies
- Effect of volcanic input on the shale system
- Innovative resource and reserve assessment methods for shale oil and gas
- Geophysical and wireline logging techniques for shale oil and gas systems
- Novel practices and technologies in drilling and hydraulic fracturing
- Case studies of terrestrial and marine shale oil and gas
Potential invited speakers include:
- Prof. Zhijun Jin (SINOPEC)
- Prof. Kitty Milliken (UT Austin)
- Prof. Fang Hao (UPC)
- Dr. Dan Jarvie (Wildcat Technologies)
- Prof. Xianzheng Zhao (PetroChina)
- Prof. Andy Aplin (Durham University, UK)
- Dr. Tongwei Zhang (UT Austin)
- Prof. Reza Razee (Curtin University, Australia)
- Prof. Yan Song (CUP)
- Dr. Dave Dewhurst (CSIRO, Australia)
- Prof. Qinhong Hu (UT Arlington)
- Dr. Hamed Soroush (PetroLern)