The US shale exploration and production (E&P) industry has grown since 2007 due to the development of new techniques such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. As a result, the share of shale gas in the US natural gas production is almost 50%, and the share of tight oil in the US crude oil production is almost 52%. Even though oil and gas prices decreased sharply in 2014, the product...

Water loss in low permeability reservoirs during hydraulic fracturing well completions typically results in a decrease in natural gas production due to capillary trapping near the fractures. Shale gas reservoirs, however, have shown a trend of improved gas production with increased loss of completion fluids to the shale. This nonintuitive relationship between water imbibition and enhanced gas p...

This article is motivated by a conundrum: How can shale gas development be encouraged and managed without complete knowledge of the associated risks? To answer this question, we used back propagation (BP) neural networks and expert scoring to quantify the relative risks of shale gas development across 12 provinces in China. The results show that the model performs well with high predictive accu...

where he is also Director of the Center for the Environment. He currently serves on President Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He has authored more than one hundred articles on topics in geochemistry, geology, paleoclimatology, ocean-ography, energy technology, and energy policy. Over the last ten years, technological innovation has transformed U.S. energy resources. Geolo...

Wastewater produced by hydraulic fracturing (" fracking ") for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale is already overwhelming disposal options and will continue to do so as gas development increases, according to newly published research. The investigation did not evaluate environmental consequences of the wastewater. But lead author Brian Lutz, an assistant professor in the Kent State University D...

Shale inhibitor is an additive for drilling fluids that can be used to inhibit shale hydration expansion and dispersion, prevent wellbore collapse. Small molecular quaternary ammonium salt enter the interlayer of clay crystal, enables excellent inhibition performance. In this paper, a novel ionic inhibitor, triethylammonium acetate (TEYA), was obtained by solvent-free synthesis using acetic aci...

Today, many governments are considering the exploration and production of unconventional resources, shale gas in particular, for reasons of security of supply and reduction of import dependency. Large-scale development of these resources promises to significantly lower import dependency of gas supply of many countries. Whether the promise will be met remains uncertain though, not only because o...

Bioassays for carcinogenicity of various primary processing products (crude oils or tars) and commercial products obtained from Estorian oil shale have been carried out since 1951. The products (undiluted or diluted) were painted twice weekly 50 times on the interscapular area of the skin of random-bred or CC57Br mice. The products processed at high temperatures have a higher carcinogenic activ...

The oil shale resources are very abundant with its reserve three times as much as world’s proven oil reserve. However, by the limitations of traditional technology and mining methods, the development of oil shale technology is restricted to a great extent. Now researchers are studying the in-situ retorting technology through heating the underground oil shale directly. Then the released oil and ...

The Haynesville Shale is a subsurface rock formation located beneath the Northeast Texas/Northwest Louisiana border near Shreveport. This formation is estimated to contain very large recoverable reserves of natural gas, and during the two years since the drilling of the first highly productive wells in 2008, has been the focus of intensive leasing and exploration activity. The development of na...