Islam Unconventional Gas Reservoirs

Evaluation, Appraisal, and Development
1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-0-12-800594-1
Verlag: Elsevier Science & Techn.
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 632 Seiten

Natural gas, especially unconventional gas, has an increasingly important role in meeting the world's energy needs. Experts estimate that it has the potential to add anywhere from 60-250% to the global proven gas reserve in the next two decades. To maintain pace with increasing global demand, Unconventional Gas Reservoirs provides the necessary bridge into the newer processes, approaches and designs to help identify these more uncommon reservoirs available and how to maximize its unconventional potential. Loaded with reservoir development and characterization strategies, this book will show you how to: - Recognize the challenges and opportunities surrounding unconventional gas reservoirs - Distinguish among the various types of unconventional reservoirs, such as shale gas, coalbed methane, and tight gas formations - Drill down and quantify the reservoir's economic potential and other critical considerations - Gain practical insights and tools to efficiently identify, appraise, and develop unconventional gas reservoirs - Understand various techniques used to analyze reservoir parameters and performance as well as how they were applied to numerous real-world case studies - Upgrade to the latest information on perspectives and insights with discussion of key differences used for today's unconventional gas characterization versus original conventional methods that failed in the past

M. Rafiqul Islam is currently the President of Emertec Research and Development Ltd., a company he co-founded in late 1980's. Previously, he spent over 20 years as Professor, Research Chair and Director for various Universities, including Killam Chair at Dalhousie University. He earned Diplome d'État in petroleum production engineering from Institut Algérien du Pétrole. He then attended graduate programs at the University of Texas Austin and the University of Alberta, from where he received a M.Sc. and a Ph.D., both in petroleum engineering. He has been awarded multiple awards, including the Einstein Gold Medal from the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, which is the highest honor. He has over 700 publications to his name, including dozens of books in several disciplines and multiple TV appearances within Canada and worldwide.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Islam, M. Rafiqul

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Front Cover;1
2;UNCONVENTIONAL GAS RESERVOIRS;4
3;Copyright;5
4;CONTENTS;6
5;AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY;8
6;Chapter 1 - Introduction;10
6.1;1.1 SUMMARY;10
6.2;1.2 UNCONVENTIONAL TO MAINSTREAM: A NECESSARY PARADIGM SHIFT;11
6.3;1.3 THE PARADOX OF UNCONVENTIONAL GAS;13
6.4;1.4 GREENING THE FUTURE OF UNCONVENTIONAL GAS;14
6.5;1.5 PARADIGM SHIFT IN RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION;15
6.6;1.6 THE SCIENCE OF UNCONVENTIONAL GAS;15
6.7;1.7 DEPICTING THE FUTURE;16
6.8;1.8 THE END GAME;17
7;Chapter 2 - World Gas Reserve and the Role of Unconventional Gas;18
7.1;2.1 SUMMARY;18
7.2;2.2 PETROLEUM IN THE BIG PICTURE;18
7.3;2.3 PETROLEUM RESERVE AROUND THE WORLD;35
7.4;2.4 WORLDWIDE GAS RESERVE;43
7.5;2.5 UNCONVENTIONAL GAS AROUND THE WORLD;58
7.6;2.6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS;76
8;Chapter 3 - Important Features of Unconventional Gas;80
8.1;3.1 SUMMARY AND INTRODUCTION;80
8.2;3.2 OVERVIEW OF UNCONVENTIONAL GAS RESERVOIRS;83
8.3;3.3 SPECIAL FEATURES OF UNCONVENTIONAL GAS RESERVOIRS;89
8.4;3.4 GLOBAL WARMING AND NATURAL GAS;125
8.5;3.5 DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF UNCONVENTIONAL RESERVOIRS;135
9;Chapter 4 - Future Potentials of Unconventional Gas: Challenges and Opportunities;138
9.1;4.1 INTRODUCTION;138
9.2;4.2 LESSONS LEARNT FROM ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY;139
9.3;4.3 CARBON SEQUESTRATION ENHANCED GAS RECOVERY;224
9.4;4.4 ENHANCED GAS RECOVERY;229
9.5;4.4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS;240
10;Chapter 5 - Reservoir Characterization of Unconventional Gas Formations;246
10.1;5.1 SUMMARY;246
10.2;5.2 INTRODUCTION;246
10.3;5.3 ORIGIN OF FRACTURES;249
10.4;5.4 SEISMIC FRACTURE CHARACTERIZATION;251
10.5;5.5 RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION DURING DRILLING;259
10.6;5.6 RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION WITH IMAGE LOG AND CORE ANALYSIS;276
10.7;5.7 MAJOR FORCES OF OIL AND GAS RESERVOIRS;309
10.8;5.8 RESERVOIR HETEROGENEITY;326
10.9;5.9 SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR SHALE;340
10.10;5.10 SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR COALBED METHANE;342
11;Chapter 6 - Scientific Characterization of Unconventional Gas Reservoirs;346
11.1;6.1 SUMMARY;346
11.2;6.2 INTRODUCTION;346
11.3;6.3 SCIENCE OF NATURE VERSUS NATURAL SCIENCE;351
11.4;6.4 DELINEARIZED HISTORY OF CHARACTERIZATION OF MATTER AND ENERGY;358
11.5;6.5 CHARACTERIZATION OF EVERYTHING IN EXISTENCE;374
11.6;6.6 ORGANIC AND MECHANICAL FREQUENCIES;377
11.7;6.7 REDEFINING FORCE AND ENERGY;378
11.8;6.8 WHAT IS A NATURAL ENERGY SOURCE?;390
11.9;6.9 THE SCIENCE OF WATER AND PETROLEUM;393
11.10;6.10 ORGANIC ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM;448
11.11;6.11 PLACEMENT OF UNCONVENTIONAL GAS IN THE ENERGY PICTURE;455
12;Chapter 7 - Overview of Reservoir Simulation of Unconventional Reservoirs;496
12.1;7.1 INTRODUCTION;496
12.2;7.2 ESSENCE OF RESERVOIR SIMULATION;498
12.3;7.3 RECENT ADVANCES IN RESERVOIR SIMULATION;521
12.4;7.4 COMPREHENSIVE MODELING;535
12.5;7.5 TOWARDS SOLVING NONLINEAR EQUATIONS;545
13;Chapter 8 - Economic Outlook and Conclusions;558
13.1;8.1 SUMMARY;558
13.2;8.2 ECONOMICS OF UNCONVENTIONAL AND ECONOMICS OF INTANGIBLES;559
13.3;8.3 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS;564

Leseproben

Chapter 1

Introduction

Abstract

Only recently it has become evident that natural gas provides one with great value with minimum impact on the environment. With the ongoing “gas crisis” in Europe and steep energy needs of China and India, the importance of natural gas is increasing tremendously in the global market. Unconventional gas reservoirs are responsible for about one-third of annual US natural gas production. In the global scale, unconventional gas reserves can add 60–250% to the proven gas reserves. This book explores the science behind unconventional gas and provides one with a basis that the realistic estimate of total available gas could easily exceed all estimates of the past. With newfound gas and technologies that harness it with environmental integrity, the world could easily see another 100years of crisis-free energy outlook. This book paints a rosy picture that is supported by scientific basis and guides the readership to be able to discern between hype and hysteria involving petroleum resource management.

Keywords

Energy crisis; enhanced oil and gas recovery; non-Newtonian; reserve analysis; reservoir characterization; tight gas

1.1. Summary

Only recently it has become evident that natural gas provides one with great value with minimum impact on the environment. With the ongoing “gas crisis” in Europe and steep energy needs of China and India, the importance of natural gas is increasing tremendously in the global market. Unconventional gas reservoirs are responsible for about one-third of annual US natural gas production. In the global scale, unconventional gas reserves can add 60–250% to the proven gas reserves. This book explores the science behind unconventional gas and provides one with a basis that the realistic estimate of total available gas could easily exceed all estimates of the past. With newfound gas and technologies that harness it with environmental integrity, the world could easily see another 100years of crisis-free energy outlook. This book paints a rosy picture that is supported by scientific basis and guides the readership to be able to discern between hype and hysteria involving petroleum resource management.

The potential of unconventional gas reserves is far greater than any enhanced oil recovery scheme designed to date. However, when the two are combined and added to that is scientific basis for revised assessment of world gas reserve, the energy outlook becomes very bright. The purpose of this book is to provide one with practical insights and tools that can be used to efficiently identify, appraise, and develop these types of reservoirs. Initially, the readership is be familiarized with both engineering and marketing aspects of natural gas. The mechanisms of gas production and reservoir engineering are discussed. Presented are the origin and mechanisms of gas production, along with the various techniques used to analyze reservoir parameters and performance, and understand how these have been applied to numerous projects. Specific features of unconventional gas reserves and the means of capitalizing on these features in order to maximize long-term benefit are discussed. Scientific characterization of gas reserves included discussion of the history of gas as well as the rock. This “bottom-up” analysis helped develop truly scientific basis for unconventional gas analysis. Thorough geological characterization was presented for US reservoirs in order to connect with potential sources of unconventional gas. This serves as a template for a new analysis that starts off with conventional reservoir characterization. It is shown that the true reserve potential of gas is much higher than the one estimated using conventional approach. Latest information on emerging technologies in typical enhanced oil recovery are presented with lucid discussion of key features of reservoir characterization and development in order to help readership identify techniques that can be used in “enhanced gas recovery” of unconventional gas. It is shown that contrary to popular belief, such techniques are economically attractive and environmentally sustainable. This unlocking of emerging technologies, coupled with a novel technique for characterization of unconventional gas reserves for which conventional techniques fail to yield sound results, creates a true paradigm shift in gas reservoir analysis.

The science of both fluid and rock is discussed using delinearized history analysis. The discussion of coal bed methane and gas hydrate is carried out with the focus on improving production rate under various production strategies. Criteria for selecting candidates for hydraulic fracturing as well as horizontal wells are discussed. For every case encountered specific suggestion is made that is custom designed for the particular application. A guideline is provided for optimization of recovery schemes under various production and enhanced gas recovery strategies.

Finally, numerical modeling approaches are discussed and challenges in modeling unconventional gas reservoirs are presented. A number of case studies involving technological application as well as numerical modeling are presented. Overall, new opportunities are highlighted and previously held beliefs and myths deconstructed.

1.2. Unconventional to Mainstream: A Necessary Paradigm Shift

Newton did not know what the term “Newtonian” meant in any discipline. Scientists that followed Newton's “laws” and theories with dogmatic fervor did not know what the term non-Newtonian stood for. At present, scholarly works on “Non-Newtonian” outnumber “Newtonian” by a big margin. Over 50years ago, US government started to invest in research in coal bed methane, shale gas, shale oil, along with other areas of petroleum development. Decades later, the term “unconventional” was coined. Even some more decades later came the success story of unconventional gas. This success would come only after Europe had been under the grip of a “gas crisis.” Within years, “unconventional” became the biggest story in U.S. in terms of energy independence. A new type of revolution began. Figure 1.1 shows graphical representation of wells in the shale gas plays of just one basin in Texas. If 10,860 horizontal gas wells are called “unconventional” one must wonder what would the term “conventional” represent.

Figure 1.1 Location map for Barnett shale. From EIA, 2011.

Chapter 2 discusses the role of unconventional gas in the big picture of petroleum. It deconstructs many myths that have perplexed modern society that has grown accustomed to vilifying carbon—the essence of life. It unravels the mysteries of “resource triangle” that is based on the false premise that natural is more expensive than artificial (Figure 1.2). It places unconventional gas in its correct position within proven gas and oil reserves and shows that this “unconventional” is anything but unconventional in conventional sense. It is the mainstream of the future.

The chapter also presents a delinearized history of energy developments in relation to petroleum production, particularly as it relates to natural gas. It shows that energy needs of the future can only be met if we excel in accessing unconventional gas. It creates the need for a paradigm shift in nomenclature as well as scientific description of unconventional reservoirs. In simple terms, it delivers the message that the science of unconventional gas cannot be understood with the conventional routines.

Figure 1.2 Conventional perception of resource triangle.

1.3. The Paradox of Unconventional Gas

We live in an interesting époque. Everything surrounding us seems to point to contradictions. We made unprecedented progress in technology development, only to hear from Nobel Laureate Chemists (e.g., Robert Curl) that ours is a “technological disaster.” We claim to have progressed from dark ages of savagery and lack of empathy to modern enlightenment only to hear from some of the most ardent supporters of modern European mind-set of Capitalism (e.g., Pope Francis) that unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities are actually an act of terrorism. As civilization evolved, we claim to have become wiser and more efficient, only to discover our per capita energy need has skyrocketed in the modern era. We are so sure about our superiority that we call humans as the top of the food chain and boast about our entitlement over other species, only to discover that the greatest crisis is the population growth of humans—the “best creation” of nature. We have identified “greening” as the key to resolving the environmental disaster that has befallen on us only to target carbon as the worst enemy to environmental integrity. This is the same carbon that is the essence of “greening.” We praise nature for its unique ability to turn bad into good, for its tenacity and sustainability, only to target petroleum as the number one enemy of the environment. Which petroleum? The one that was perfected by nature—the very nature we love to be in tune with.

Chapter 2 started the paradigm shift and Chapter 3 continues it in the realm of unconventional technology development, its geological nature, and the economics that can support its development and growth. It shows conventional engineering analysis is not the only one that does not apply to unconventional reservoirs; conventional accounting theories as well as...