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SHALE GAS & TIGHT OIL

BARCELONA, 1 Febrero 2016

Alvaro F. Racero

Francisco Hernández Ortiz

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The Hydrocarbon System

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Main processes and elements

www. Petroleum Support.com

Processes Elements

177o C

49o C

Hydrocarbon system is compounded by a set of processes

and elements that interact between them with the final

result of the creation of a hydrocarbon accumulation

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The pores of the rocks

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Pores are spaces within the rock with the ability of contain fluids

PORE size of millimetre scale

(visible by the human eye)

PORE size close to 0,1 mm (limit of

the resolution of the human eye)

Comparative scale of pore sizes of the rocks

and hydrocarbon molecules

Source: web pages of different companies, agencies and service companies of the industry

Milímetro

Micrómetro

Nanómetro .

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The fluids of the hydrocarbon systems

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From a source rock with a specific organic matter content,

the different hydrocarbons are generated in the subsurface

Light OilHeavy Oil and Bitumen Gas

source

rock

Source: web pages of different companies, agencies and service companies of the industry

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What are Unconventional Hydrocarbons?

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UNCONVENTIONAL HYDROCARBONS are hydrocarbons with low quality in their static and/or dynamic related

parameters. It means that unconventional hydrocarbons are hydrocarbons with high viscosity, and/or low mobility, and/or

hydrocarbons located in rocks with very low porosity, and/or very low permeability.

Mobility = The ratio of permeability to viscosity (well productivity is directly

proportional to the mobility-thickness product)

Permeability = The ability, or measurement of a rock's ability, to

transmit fluids from pore to pore (typically measured in darcies or millidarcies)

Connected pores give a rock permeability

GRAIN

GRAIN

GRAIN

GRAIN

GRAIN

Hydrocarbons are

compounds of hydrogen

and carbon that can be

found in the pore space of

the subsurface rocks

Lig

ht O

il

Viscosity = A property of fluids and slurries that indicates their

resistance to flow from pore to pore (typically measured in poise or (cp) centipoise)

Hea

vy O

il

Bitu

me

nG

as

Porosity = The percentage of pore volume or void space, or that

volume within the rock that can contain fluids (typically measured between 0–1,

or as a percentage between 0–100%)

High porosity Low porosity Tight porosity

GRAIN

GRAIN

GRAIN

GRAIN

GRAIN

GRAIN

GRAIN

Some parameters implicated in a possible definition

Source: web pages of different companies, agencies and service companies of the industry

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What are Unconventional Hydrocarbons?

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Shale Oil / GasReservoir = Shale rocks (with high percentage of organic

matter) that have very low porosities and permeabilities

Reservoir is the same to source rock

Fracture technologies must be applied for an economic production of the hydrocarbon

Tight Oil / Gas

Reservoir is different to source rock

Reservoir = Clastic/Carbonate rocks

with low porosity and/or permeability

Rock with small and

not connected pores =

Tight

Source: web pages of different companies, agencies and service companies of the industry

Rock with an extremely small grain

size and with a high percentage of

organic matter content = Shale

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Technologies

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• Massive use of fracking and new completions design have not been possible until around the middle of the last decade.

• Cost of the massive fracking is around the 60% of the total cost of the well and is necessary for the obtention of commercial flows.

Fractures

Shale Gas Bed

The shale gas bed is fractured

because the pressure applied

from the wellbore

Depth

(m

ete

rs)

2.134 meters

0 meters

Depth

(f

eet)

Fracking

operations

Fracking

operations

Fresh water

Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing

Technical Analysis - E&P Business Development – EMD of E&P (May 2014)

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Technologies

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Proppant function

Source: web pages of different companies, agencies and service companies of the industry

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Technologies

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Proppant and flowback

To the well

From the

well

Flowback

after

treatment

Flowback

before

treatment

Proppant(fracture support)

Ceramic proppant

(artificial manufacture)

Source: web pages of different companies, agencies and service companies of the industry

Natural sand

Proppant sand bags Resin coated proppant

Synthetic proppant Ceramic proppant

Bauxite proppant

Different classes of proppant

Technical Analysis - E&P Business Development – EMD of E&P (May 2014)

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Technologies

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The hydraulic fracturing operation and the equipment

Additives

Manifold

Water

storage

Proppant

storage

Blender

trucks

Water storageProppant storage Manifold

Wellhead

Blender

Trucks

Hydraulic fracturing treatment,

Woodford Shale, Canadian

County, Oklahoma, for which

Halliburton provided 52,000 hhp.

Source: JPT, December 2010

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The Paradigm Change

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The Emerging Plays in USA

Sourc

e: E

nerg

y Info

rmatio

n A

dm

inis

tratio

n b

ased o

n d

ata

from

vario

us p

ublis

hed s

tudie

s. U

pdate

d M

ay 2

011

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Oil Price effect

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THANK YOU

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