As we transition from fossil fuel reliance to a new energy future, innovative microbial biotechnologies may offer new routes to maximize recovery from conventional and unconventional energy assets; as well as contributing to reduced emission pathways and new technologies for carbon capture and utilization. Here we discuss the role of microbiology in petroleum biotechnologies in relation to addr...

The UK has had its fair share of the shale gas revolutionary waves blowing across the global oil and gas industry at present. Although, its exploitation is widely agreed to have been delayed, shale gas was looked upon favorably by the UK Parliament when they recognized it as genuine energy source and granted licenses to industry to search and extract the resource. This, although a significant p...

This paper presents a mineralogical and chemical investigation of shale deposits from the U.S. Gulf coast in order to document the mechanisms and reactions involved in the diagenetic conversion of smectite into illite. Cuttings from the 1,250 to 5,500 m stratigraphic interval of a well were sorted by grain size and analzyed by x-ray diffraction to assess chemical and mineralogical trends with d...

The Akinbo Formation comprises a sequence of mostly dark, pale-greenish grey, laminated shale, slightly glauconitic shale, sandy shale with subordinate claystone lenses. Selected subsurface samples of the shaly facies as penetrated by Akinside 1582 well in eastern Dahomey basin. were investigated by sedimentological. mineralogical and geochemical parameters to ascertain the hydrocarbon potentia...

Shale formations show obvious anisotropic characteristics in their mechanical properties due to pronounced bedding planes and natural fractures. This anisotropic behavior generally creates complex fracturing networks and is crucial to gas shale stimulation. Although much research has been done to study the anisotropic compression behaviors of shale with static and quasi-static strain rates, the...

The remarkable US growth of shale gas and the associated decrease in the US natural gas prices has catalysed an increasing interest of shale gas resource exploration in other areas of the world. Commercial drilling operations have not yet commenced, but exploration is taking place in some European countries, including the UK. Major environmental concerns, regarding the amount and the handling m...

Worldwide interest in shale plays has rapidly increased in recently years, thanks to the combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Shale formations act as both the source and the reservoir for the natural gas and usually exhibit anisotropic properties at larger scale. Geological and petropysical studies found that the right combination of thickness, TOC (total organic carbon)...

Evaluation of the geomechanical properties of shales, especially weak ones is always problematic. The Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) recently undertook a major research initiative to achieve significant and recurring cost savings for MODOT by developing improved, technically sound design specifications. Test drilling in shale was conducted; Boreholes were typically drilled in pai...

Hydraulic fracturing in shale gas reservoirs has usually resulted in complex fracture network. The results of micro-seismic monitoring showed that the nature and degree of fracture complexity must be clearly understood to optimize stimulation design and completion strategy. This is often called stimulated reservoir volume (SRV). In the oil & gas industry, stimulated reservoir volume has made th...