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Bitumen/Heavy Oil (Oil Sands)

Explorer Article

For anyone interested in the methods of observing and quantifying the pore systems that control hydrocarbon and flow in unconventional reservoirs, AAPG’s new volume is what you’ve been waiting for. AAPG recently released Memoir 112: “Imaging Unconventional Reservoir Pore Systems.”

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Fasken Oil and Drilling Info have a data set encompassing hundreds of square miles and thousands of wells, and they’re willing to share.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The Permian Basin has been known for black gold and clear methane for almost 100 years. Today, it’s just as closely associated with little green pieces of paper. Those dollars are flowing into the area as fast as oil and gas are flowing out. Companies and investors dropped almost $30 billion into Permian deals last year.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Middle East Blog

Accompanying the Structural Styles in the Middle East GTW this field trip will be on 10 May from 3-7 p.m. and will be led by Mohammed Al Kindi of GSO. **The field trip is included as part of the workshop registration fees. However, please note that seats are limited and will be available on a first-come first-served basis.**

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

Find out the secrets of the success of the Mid-Continent’s STACK and SCOOP plays. Attend the AAPG DPA MidContinent Playmaker Forum on May 11 in Oklahoma City and learn directly from the operators who have had the most success.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

The “shale revolution” that occurred after the advent of universal implementation of horizontal drilling and massive, multi-stage hydraulic fracturing, was dramatically impacted by the collapse of oil and gas prices.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

In 1965, G.T. Philippi, a Shell geochemist, made the novel proposal that petroleum was generated from organic matter in sediments that had been buried deeply enough to be exposed to warmer earth temperatures, converting the organic matter, with heat and time, to petroleum.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition will feature a variety of field trips that will bookend the meeting, spanning from March 26 to April 8.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

AAPG’s newest Hedberg Conference, “Fundamental Controls on Shale Oil Resources and Production,” will be held April 28-30 in Beijing, China.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Among the array of not-to-be-missed technical sessions at the upcoming 2017 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition (ACE), “Major Deepwater Fields of the Offshore U.S. Gulf of Mexico” is grabbing its share of attention.

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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