Pore Scale Analysis of Oil Shale / Sands

SPE 144050 Submicron-Pore Characterization of Shale Gas Plays

Gas storage and flow behavior in the shale gas rocks are complex and hard to identify by conventional core analysis. This study integrates clustering analysis techniques from material science, petrophysics, and petrology to characterize North American shale gas samples from Utica, Haynesville, and Fayetteville shale gas plays. High pressure (up to 60,000 psi) mercury porosimetry analysis (MICP)...

Nanometer-Scale Pore Characteristics of Lacustrine Shale, Songliao Basin, NE China

In shale, liquid hydrocarbons are accumulated mainly in nanometer-scale pores or fractures, so the pore types and PSDs (pore size distributions) play a major role in the shale oil occurrence (free or absorbed state), amount of oil, and flow features. The pore types and PSDs of marine shale have been well studied; however, research on lacustrine shale is rare, especially for shale in the oil gen...

New focus on tar sands

By many analyses, we shall soon be approaching 'peak oil' production — the time when annual output begins to stall in the face of ever-increasing demand. Oil companies are therefore increasing efforts to locate new sources and, in the face of the large-scale environmental problems caused by the failure of a deep-drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico, the successful development of Canada's ta...

Clean and Secure Energy from Domestic Oil Shale and Oil Sands Resources

Pore-Scale Simulation and Sensitivity Analysis of Apparent Gas Permeability in Shale Matrix

Extremely low permeability due to nano-scale pores is a distinctive feature of gas transport in a shale matrix. The permeability of shale depends on pore pressure, porosity, pore throat size and gas type. The pore network model is a practical way to explain the macro flow behavior of porous media from a microscopic point of view. In this research, gas flow in a shale matrix is simulated using a...