8 Shale Reservoirs—Giant Hydrocarbon Resources for the 21st Century II

Monday, 16 March 2009
1:30 PM - 3:30 PM

WORKFLOW FOR STRATIGRAPHIC CHARACTERIZATION OF UNCONVENTIONAL GAS SHALES

Paper number: 8-4
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 2:15 PM – 2:30 PM

Authors

Abstract

Based upon multidisciplinary research over the past few years, our unconventional gas shale team has developed a workflow for evaluating the origin and exploitation of unconventional gas shales. This workflow---which is presented here, with examples---integrates sedimentology, petrography, high resolution scanning electron microscopy, lithostratigraphy, geochemistry, biostratigraphy, well log analysis (including borehole image logs), 3D seismic processing and interpretation, geomechanics, petrophysics, and geostatistics.

One of the significant findings of our research has been the realization that established sequence stratigraphic principles at the systems tract to parasequence scales can be applied to characterize unconventional gas shales. These principles can be applied for (1) regional to local correlation and mapping of shale parasequences, (2) determining stratigraphic-mineralogic-geochemical-geomechanical-petrophysical interrelationships, and (3) predicting most favorable stratigraphic units for gas accumulation and exploitation. In addition to providing a better understanding of the evolution of shales and their contained gas, educational opportunities are being provided to university students who can be integrated into the oil and gas industry to actively participate in the exploration for, and exploitation of this growing global energy resource.