Introduction to Shale Reservoirs

With the increasing global demand for clean hydrocarbons, the E&P companies are in search of unconventional resources such as shale gas and oil. They have very specific characteristics, such as complex mineralogy, lateral and vertical heterogeneity as well as anisotropy. These characteristics require detailed characterization and exploitation technologies.

The class provides attendees with focused instruction on the geological, geophysical and petrophysical attributes of shale reservoirs, including the origin and accumulation of natural gas and liquids. Participants will be exposed to the methods and workflows for identifying and characterizing shale reservoirs. They will build on this foundation to learn about the engineering aspects of shale hydrocarbons exploitation. Participants will gain an understanding of methods and workflows for developing shale hydrocarbons resources including horizontal well architecture & placement, completions, hydraulic fracturing and production.

• Agenda
• Topics
• Audience
• Prerequisites

• Agenda

  Day 1

  Exploring Shale Reservoirs

  Geologic Considerations: regional (or basin-wide) structural influences and tectonic considerations and local stratigraphy.

  Exploration Considerations: Reconnaissance methods; objectives and tasks involved in the exploration study; screening and ranking prospects; importance of fractures; use of seismic in the evaluation of shale reservoirs; role of geomechanics; use of basin modeling and petroleum systems analysis; risk analysis and pilot projects

  Geochemical - Total Organic Carbon & Thermal Maturity.

  Day 2

  Appraising Shale Reservoirs

  Formation Evaluation: Wireline Logging; Borehole Imaging; Micro-Seismic Analysis; Wireline formation testing. Using log measurements for determination of mineralogy; porosity (total porosity vs. effective porosity); permeability; free and total gas quantification; adsorbed hydrocarbons quantification; saturation and shale gas integrated with cores. Understanding rock heterogeneity

  Geomechanics - Paleo Stress; Modern Stress; Near borehole Stress and Wellbore Failure; Mechanical Earth Model (MEM); Thickness, Depth and Pressure; Hydrocarbons Storage Capacity.

  Day 3

  Drilling Shale Reservoirs

  Horizontal Borehole Considerations

  Reservoir Quality Considerations for Borehole Placement: Lateral orientation

  Rig Technologies; Pad Drilling; Drilling Fluids; Bottom Hole Assembly Optimization

  Drainage areas and borehole spacing; Production “Sweet Spots” Economics; Statistical Drilling; Sweet Spot Drilling;

  Day 4

  Completing and Stimulating Shale Reservoirs

  Completions – Integration process and best practices in designing completions. Topics such as well integrity, casing requirements, cemented or uncemented liners, fracture staging tools and technology, perforating, and artificial lift are presented.

  Fracturing and Fracture Evaluation – Stimulation operations and evaluating completion efficiency. Transverse versus longitudinal fractures, fracture spacing, fracture complexity, job sizing, fluid chemistry and proppant design, risk minimization, and microseismic monitoring. Overview of software applications with field examples

  Water Cycle

  Day 5

  Producing from Shale Reservoirs

  Production Philosophies – production and field redevelopment strategies to maintain production. Tools and workflows for production monitoring and control. Possible Flow Assurance Issues;

• Topics

  This 5 days class is structured in the lines of Explore, Appraise, Drill, Complete and Produce from Shale Reservoirs.

  The class is a foundation level class

• Audience

  Petroleum Engineers, Geoscientists and Managers wanting to gain a good understanding of characterizing and developing Shale reservoirs

• Prerequisites

  Petroleum Engineers and Geoscientists with experience of one year or more in the Oil & Gas industry

• Prerequisites