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Big Daddy: Shale gas plays may be commonplace in the United States, but most stand in awe of the extensive Marcellus Shale.
James R. “Jim Bob” Moffett, co-chairman of the board at McMoRan Exploration, likes to say he cut his teeth on the onshore Miocene.
Shallow water, deep treasure: The recent Davy Jones discovery is a game-changer for the Gulf of Mexico – and maybe the entire industry.
At last, a reason to thank your kids for playing video games: PlayStation 3 technology is elevating seismic imaging to a whole new level of refinement.
Not all shales are created equal; the Illinois Basin’s New Albany shale, for example, has yet to be mistaken for the Barnett. But geoscientists, armed with new technology, are about to find out why.
Experts have spoken about its oil potential for decades. Finally, Iraq is primed to fulfill its promise – and its opportunities aren’t just for the super-big players, either.
Poland is primed and anxious to have its fields on the world list of successful shale gas plays.
A strong, integrated and active group of explorationists is still recognized as the most effective way to add value to a company by what is called 'organic growth,' which is very much a long-term activity.
Latin America’s current story of exploration, development and potential may be the best known among all parts of the globe – and not just because AAPG recently held its successful international conference in Rio de Janeiro.
What’s the difference? When it comes to the terms subsalt and presalt, the answer is, “a lot – and it matters.”
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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