A PROPOSAL BY ELLAH JOHN
ON
A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE GAS FLOW
IN SHALE.
A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF
GAS FLOW IN SHALES
Generally tight reservoirs have been avoided in the exploration and production
industry. This is due to the perceived lack of reservoir qualities. However, with the
growing consensus amongst energy experts that global oil supplies has peaked, it is
therefore imperative to look at non- conventional resources to assuage the shortfall
in oil production and supply (Manville et al. 2009). In recent years, gas production
from shale formations have become an essential exploration target and
understanding the geological and geochemical nature of the shale formations and
how to increase gas production has been of major concern to researchers.
Understanding the geological and geochemical nature of shale formations and how
to improve their gas production rate has been of major concern to Researchers since
the 1970s.
OUTLINE TO SERVE AS GUIDE
Introduction (start wide and narrow)
Research Gap
Aims and Objectives
Methodology
Health and Safety
Unconventional gas resources such as tight gas, coalbed methane, and shale gas
will play a significant role in world energy supply because of their potential to
offset declines in conventional gas production. In conventional natural gas reservoirs,
gas is stored in the interconnected pore spaces of sands and carbonates and often
sourced from proximal organic-rich shales. In shale gas reservoirs, gas is stored in
interconnected pore space (mineral matrix) or adsorbed onto organic matter
(kerogen
or bitumen) and often sourced from the same reservoir rock.
Natural gas production from tight shale formations, known as shale gas, is one
of the most rapidly expanding trends in onshore domestic oil and gas exploration
and production today. In some cases, this has included bringing drilling and
production to regions of the country that have seen little or no activity in the
past. New oil and gas developments bring change to the environmental and
socioeconomic landscape, particularly in those areas where gas development is
new. With these changes have come questions about the nature of shale gas
development, the potential environmental impacts, and the ability of the current
regulatory structure to deal with this development. Both regulators and policy
makers need objective sources of information upon which to base answers to
hese questions and to make decisions about how to manage the challenges that
may accompany
t
shale gas development.
Since the 1970s, understanding the geological and geochemical nature of shale
formations and how to improve their gas production rate has been of major concern
to Researchers. Essentially shale gas systems are continuous type thermogenic,
biogenic or a combination of biogenic-thermogenic gas accumulation, that is
characterized by widespread gas saturation, Subtle trapping mechanisms, seals of
variable lithology, and relatively short hydrocarbon migration distances (INTEXT
CITATION). Shale gas may be stored in various ways, as free gas in natural
fractures and intergranular porosity, as gas sorbed onto kerogen and surfaces of clay
particles, or as dissolved gas in bitumen and kerogen.
The recent popularity of unconventional gas shales
as a future long-term energy source has, among other
things, led to significant advances in understanding
shale depositional and diagenetic processes,
macroscale to microscale sedimentary structures,
both coarse- and fine-scale stacking patterns of different
lithofacies, and sequence- and parasequencescale
stratigraphy (Hickey and Henk, 2007; Loucks
and Ruppel, 2007; Schieber et al., 2007; Singh,
2008; Schieber and Southard, 2009; Bohacs, 2010;
Slatt et al., 2011a).
One such important advancement
in understanding the gas storage and flow
capacity of shales has been the documentation of
micrometer- and nanometer-size pores in organic
matter within the Barnett Shale (Loucks et al.,
2009).
.
However, increase in knowledge of volcanic deposits, geometry, composition, and
distribution are now rendering them valuable source of oil and gas (Mathisen and
Mcpherson, 1991). Volcanic reservoirs have been reported in numerous locations
around the world, examples are Argentina (Sruoga and Rubinstein, 2007), Japan
(Sakata et al., 1989), Russia (Levin 1995) and most especially China (Luo et
al.2005; Guo 2001), demonstrating the potentiality for hydrocarbon exploration in
volcanic rocks.
Despite the distribution of volcanic rocks in China, the reservoir potential for oil and
gas have not been studied extensively in the past with China having some of the
largest volcanic rock deposits in the world bearing oil and gas (Zou 2006). The oil
and gas industry is profit driven, and as a rule projects are classified in terms of more
lucrative projects having priority than the less lucrative ones. This is as a result of the
tight budget managers have to work with and therefore must be careful in assigning
resources to the right projects.
For a project to be economically viable, an economic analysis of the project must be
carried out. Capital expenses (CAPEX) and Operating expenses (OPEX) will be
determined. Most importantly, the probable returns on the business is established. In
most cases, the quantity of gas or oil in place is estimated early in the life of the play
in most gas reservoir. This is enabled with the use of several methods and
techniques such as cutting analysis during drilling, well testing techniques, surveys
using 3D seismic, analysis of rock cores, etc. Generally, estimation of reserves are
made from information gathered from analysis of the first well drilled using testing
techniques. However, in other to modify the estimates, appraisal wells are drilled and
evaluation techniques are then applied. A reasonable and timely estimate of
hydrocarbon in place values is been provided by this method, thereby giving the
manager an estimate of reasonable values for future income.
However, this is not the same for volcanic reservoirs. Generally, the volcanic
reservoirs are reservoirs with very low rock permeability (less than or equal to 0.1 to
1 md). This implies that movement of fluids through the rock is more difficult than the
more permeable rocks. Most notably, production from the volcanic reservoir is slower
than the regular gas reservoirs. Sometimes, in this type of reservoir it takes several
years to achieve pseudo-steady flow in order to obtain accurate values for the
reservoir. This implies that well testing technique results may require a lengthy
period of time to reach the pseudo-steady state flow and provide the values for the
Original gas in place (OGIP). Without an accurate estimation of the OGIP values,
economic analysis cannot be carried out effectively. Often times, well test techniques
are suspended at an early stage of field development before it reaches the pseudosteady state. Most times at the beginning phase of development, well tests are
suspended. Due to the high level of uncertainty, estimating the value of reserves
present becomes a problem. As a result, this becomes difficult for the management
to assign capital for projects, because the more the uncertainty level, the higher the
risk and this might lead to cancellation of the project.
At this stage, it is clear that an early and fairly accurate prediction of reserves in the
volcanic reservoirs will increase profitability. The central issue becomes the
prediction of the well performance in the given gas field. Several approach have
been used in the forecasting of well performance in a gas field and one of these
approach is the Decline curve analysis. However, this research is based on the
development of gas production curves for volcanic reservoirs.
Production curves are used in forecasting the performance of the reservoir so as
look at the economic feasibility of the reservoir.
AIMS AND OBKECTIVES
Conducting preliminary geologic and reservoir characterization of shale basins and
formation(s).
2. Establishing the areal extent of the major shale gas and shale oil formations.
3. Defining the prospective area for each shale gas and shale oil formation.
4. Estimating the risked shale gas and shale oil in-place.
5. Calculating the technically recoverable shale gas and shale oil resource.
Preliminary geological and reservoir data are assembled for each major shale basin and
formation, including the following key items:
Depositional environment of shale (marine vs non-marine)
Depth (to top and base of shale interval)
Structure, including major faults
Gross shale interval
Organically-rich gross and net shale thickness
Total organic content (TOC, by wt.)
Thermal maturity (Ro)
These geologic and reservoir properties are used to provide a first order overview of the
geologic characteristics of the major shale gas and shale oil formations and to help select
the
shale gas and shale oil basins and formations deemed worthy of more intensive
assessment.