geochemical and geological characteristics of the es3l lacustrine shale in the bonan sag bohai bay basin china abstract although extensive studies have been conducted on unconventional shale oil resources in recent years little work has been performed on the resource potential of lacustrine shales the es3l lower sub member of the third member of the eocene shahejie formation shale of the bonan sag a set of thick lacustrine deposited sediments offers a good example for furthering the understanding of these rocks geochemical and mineralogical investigations were carried out on a large sample set from the 220 m thick sequence of well luo69 in total 200 core samples were analyzed for total organic carbon toc and rock eval pyrolysis and 421 core samples were analyzed for mineral compositions the es3l shales have a very high toc content with type i lacustrine oil prone kerogen in the early oil generation stage rock eval tmax suppression is evident in the lower part of the es3l member associated with a rise in pi production index with respect to fracability or brittleness the content of brittle minerals in the es3l shale is generally higher than that of marine shales in the usa with higher calcite mineral averaging 51 82 wt and lower clay content averaging 18 86 wt interparticle pores in minerals grains or clay aggregates intraparticle pores intercrystalline dolomite and pyrite framboid and four types of fractures tectonic fractures abnormal pressure fractures clay shrinkage fractures and inter laminar fractures are developed in the es3l shale organic matter pores are not present in the studied samples probably due to lower maturity tectonic fracture may play an important role in hydrocarbon migration and accumulation the results of this study suggest that the es3l shale in the bonan sag has very good shale oil potential especially in the lower section

pore characteristic analysis of a lacustrine shale a case study in the ordos basin nw china abstract organic shales deposited in a continental environment are well developed in the ordos basin nw china which is rich in hydrocarbons however previous research concerning shales has predominantly focused on marine shales and barely on continental shales in this study geochemical and mineralogical analyses high pressure mercury intrusion and low pressure adsorption were performed on 18 continental shale samples obtained from a currently active shale gas play the chang 7 member of yanchang formation in the ordos basin a comparison of all these techniques is provided for characterizing the complex pore structure of continental shales geochemical analysis reveals total organic carbon toc values ranging from 0 47 to 11 44 indicating that there is abundant organic matter om in the study area kerogen analysis shows vitrinite reflectance ro of 0 68 1 02 indicating that kerogen is at a mature oil generation stage x ray diffraction mineralogy xrd analysis indicates that the dominant mineral constituents of shale samples are clay minerals which mainly consist of illite chlorite kaolinite and negligible amounts of montmorillonite quartz and feldspar followed by low carbonate content all scale pore size analysis indicates that the pore size distribution psd of shale pores is mainly from 0 3 to 60 nm note that accuracy of all scale psd analysis decreases for pores less than 0 3 nm and more than 10 m experimental analysis indicates that mesopores 2 50 nm are dominant in continental shales followed by micropores

spectrum of pore types and networks in mudrocks and a descriptive classification for matrix related mudrock pores matrix related pore networks in mudrocks are composed of nanometer to micrometer size pores in shale gas systems these pores along with natural fractures form the flow path permeability network that allows flow of gas from the mudrock to induced fractures during production a pore classification consisting of three major matrix related pore types is presented that can be used to quantify matrix related pores and relate them to pore networks two pore types are associated with the mineral matrix the third pore type is associated with organic matter om fracture pores are not controlled by individual matrix particles and are not part of this classification pores associated with mineral particles can be subdivided into interparticle interp pores that are found between particles and crystals and intraparticle intrap pores that are located within particles organic matter pores are intrap pores located within om interparticle mineral pores have a higher probability of being part of an effective pore network than intrap mineral pores because they are more likely to be interconnected although they are intrap om pores are also likely to be part of an interconnected network because of the interconnectivity of om particles in unlithifed near surface muds pores consist of interp and intrap pores and as the muds are buried they compact and lithify during the compaction process a large number of interp and intrap pores are destroyed especially in ductile grain rich muds compaction can decrease the pore volume up to 88 by several kilometers of burial at the onset of hydrocarbon thermal maturation om pores are created in kerogen at depth dissolution of chemically unstable particles can create additional moldic intrap pores

specific surface area and pore size distribution in clays and shales one of the biggest challenges in estimating the elastic transport and storage properties of shales has been a lack of understanding of their complete pore structure the shale matrix is predominantly composed of micropores pores less than 2 nm diameter and mesopores pores with 2 50 nm diameter these small pores in the shale matrix are mainly associated with clay minerals and organic matter and comprehending the controls of these clays and organic matter on the pore size distribution is critical to understand the shale pore network historically mercury intrusion techniques are used for pore size analysis of conventional reservoirs however for unconventional shale reservoirs very high pressures 414 mpa 60 000 psi would be required for mercury to access the full pore structure which has potential pitfalls current instrumental limitations do not allow reliable measurement of significant portions of the total pore volume in shales nitrogen gas adsorption techniques can be used to characterize materials dominated by micro and mesopores 2 50 nm a limitation of this technique is that it fails to measure large pores diameter 200 nm we use a nitrogen gas adsorption technique to study the micro and mesopores in shales and clays and compare the results from conventional mercury porosimetry techniques our results on pure clay minerals and natural shales show that i they have a multiscale pore structure at different dimensions ii fine mesopores with a characteristic 3 nm pore size obtained with n2 gas adsorption are associated with an illite smectite group of clays but not with kaolinite iii compaction results in a decrease of pore volume and a reduction of pore size in the inter aggregate macropores of the illitesmectite clays while the fine intra tachoid mesopores are shielded from compaction iv for natural shales mineralogy controls the pore size distributions for shales and the presence of micropores and fine mesopores in natural shales can be correlated with the dominance of the illite smectite type of clays in the rock our assessment of incompressible 3 nm sized pores associated with illite smectite clays provides an important building block for their mineral modulus

pore connectivity and water accessibility in upper permian transitional shales southern china abstract pore connectivity of shale controls shale gas migration and production behavior the pore connectivity and water accessibility in clay rich upper permian transitional shales remain unclear contrast matching small angle neutron scattering cm sans tests were used to determine the accessibility of water to pores in the transitional shales complementary analyses with sans gas co2 and n2 physisorption isotherm mercury intrusion capillary pressure micp helium ion microscopy him as well as field emission scanning electron microscopy fe sem were conducted to study the pore connectivity and distribution characteristics of closed pores the results show that closed pores inaccessible to nitrogen molecules and mercury are mainly distributed in pore diameters 10 nm and associated with organic pores and interlayer spaces of illite smectite mixed layer mineral the pore volume values obtained from micp and n2 adsorption underestimate the large pores pore diameters 100 nm in shales based on deuterated water cm sans tests 87 98 of the pores 2 200 nm diameters are water connected in transitional samples the low accessibility to water is at pore sizes of 5 10 nm and 20 30 nm results from in situ gas contents show that closed pores have a certain gas bearing capacity but micropores pore diameters 2 nm control the gas occurrence in transitional samples the connectivity of the organic pore network and between organic pores and surrounding interparticle pores is directly supported by fe sem and him imaging overall improving pore fracture connectivity through effective fracturing techniques is a means of mitigating the rapid decline in shale gas production

the importance of shale composition and pore structure upon gas storage potential of shale gas reservoirs abstract the effect of shale composition and fabric upon pore structure and ch 4 sorption is investigated for potential shale gas reservoirs in the western canadian sedimentary basin wcsb devonian mississippian d m and jurassic shales have complex heterogeneous pore volume distributions as identified by low pressure co 2 and n 2 sorption and high pressure hg porosimetry thermally mature d m shales 1 6 2 5 vro have dubinin radushkevich d r co 2 micropore volumes ranging between 0 3 and 1 2 cc 100 g and n 2 bet surface areas of 5 31 m 2 g jurassic shales which are invariably of lower thermal maturity ranging from 0 9 to 1 3 vro than d m shales have smaller d r co 2 micropore volumes and n 2 bet surface areas typically in the range of 0 23 0 63 cc 100 g co 2 and 1 9 m 2 g n 2 high pressure ch 4 isotherms on dried and moisture equilibrated shales show a general increase of gas sorption with total organic carbon toc content methane sorption in d m shales increases with increasing toc and micropore volume indicating that microporosity associated with the organic fraction is a primary control upon ch 4 sorption sorption capacities for jurassic shales however can be in part unrelated to micropore volume the large sorbed gas capacities of organic rich jurassic shales independent of surface area imply a portion of ch 4 is stored by solution in matrix bituminite solute ch 4 is not an important contributor to gas storage in d m shales structural transformation of d m organic matter has occurred during thermal diagenesis creating and or opening up microporosity onto which gas can sorb as such d m shales sorb more ch 4 per weight percent wt toc than jurassic shales inorganic material influences modal pore size total porosity and sorption characteristics of shales clay minerals are capable of sorbing gas to their internal structure the amount of which is dependent on clay type illite and montmorillonite have co 2 micropore volumes of 0 78 and 0 79 cc 100 g n 2 bet surface areas of 25 and 30 m 2 g and sorb 2 9 and 2 1 cc g of ch 4 respectively dry basis a reflection of microporosity between irregular surfaces of clay platelets and possibly related to the size of the clay crystals themselves mercury porosimetry analyses show that total porosities are larger in clay rich shales compared to silica rich shales due to open porosity associated with the aluminosilicate fraction clay rich sediments low si al ratios have unimodal pore size distributions

geochemistry of the extremely high thermal maturity longmaxi shale gas southern sichuan basin abstract the marine shale of the silurian longmaxi formation in southern sichuan basin china is characterized by its huge thickness 100 600 m high toc values 0 35 18 4 favorable types of organic matter i and ii1 high ro values 1 8 4 2 abundant brittle minerals average 56 3 and strong gas generation intensity particularly its bottom section which has toc 2 and thickness of 20 70 m has recently been a main target for shale gas exploration and development geochemical parameters of 13 gas samples from longmaxi shale from 10 wells were analyzed in this study wetness of the gas molar fraction of ethane through pentanes in total gaseous hydrocarbon is only 0 24 0 70 making the longmaxi shale gas among the driest in the world carbon isotopic compositions of the alkane gases from longmaxi shale are characterized by 13c1 13c2 13c3 with the most positive 13c1 values in the world a positive relationship was observed between its 13c1 and 13c2 values reflecting the extremely high thermal maturity of the source rock 2hch4 values range from 140 to 151 and the 2hc2h6 values range from 130 to 173 the hydrogen isotopic compositions were mainly characterized by 2hch4

multiscale connectivity characterization of marine shales in southern china by fluid intrusion small angle neutron scattering sans and fib sem abstract an evaluation of shale pore connectivity is essential for predicting the production behavior and optimizing the development plan of shale gas to systematically investigate the multiscale connectivity characteristics and controlling factors complementary tests were conducted on four overmature marine shale samples from southern china one each from longmaxi formation and wufeng formation and two from niutitang formation with different maturity and composition the methods included mercury intrusion capillary pressure micp spontaneous imbibition with deionized water and n decane saturated diffusion distribution with seven nano sized tracers n2 physisorption small angle neutron scattering sans and focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy fib sem tomography moreover a novel repeated micp measurement technique was developed and used to evaluate the pore connectivity from the distribution behavior of residual mercury results indicate that the connectivity loss of hydrophilic pore networks owing to an increased maturity and the compaction causes pore shrinkage and bond breakage between pore networks according to the three dimensional reconstruction and pore network extraction of fib sem images pores in organic matter om have a good pore connectivity but the minerals surrounding the om reduce the overall pore connectivity of the shale matrix by evaluating the pore connectivity using different methods the hydrocarbon migration pattern in overmature marine shales was established our results imply that in addition to creating induced fracture networks effectively connecting induced fractures with preexisting microcracks or joint sets between om pore networks and transport pores can also be used to enhance overall pore connectivity microwave heating in shale reservoirs may be an effective way of further improving the production and recovery of hydrocarbons

various controlling factors of matrix related pores from differing depositional shales of the yangtze block in south china insight from organic matter isolation and fractal analysis abstract in this study matrix related pores from differing depositional shales were explored comparatively among of them lower cambrian shale 3 83 ro and lower silurian shale 2 61 ro were marine sediments with abundant oil prone kerogen and rich siliceous minerals while upper permian shale 2 44 ro were transitional sediments with redundant gas prone kerogen and rich clay the morphology and geometry of pores were investigated via fractal analyses based on n2 adsorption and direct imaging the effects of organic matter om within different shales were also highlighted through n2 adsorption before and after om isolation lower cambrian shale possessed the lowest pore volumes pv averaging 0 0109 ml g and the lowest pore surface areas psa averaging 9 09 m2 g as well as the smallest average pore diameters apd averaging 5 47 nm dissolved pore with dead end openings was the main type the pv and psa of isolated om were only approximately 1 and 2 times higher than that of corresponding samples respectively in contrast lower silurian shale possessed the highest pv averaging 0 0109 ml g and the highest psa averaging 9 09 m2 g as well as relatively large apd averaging 13 43 nm organic hosted pores omp with cellular structure is the main type the pv and psa of isolated om were approximately 8 5 and 3 times higher than that of corresponding samples respectively upper permian shale with the largest averaging pore diameters averaging 18 82 nm presented high pv averaging 0 0209 ml g similar to that of lower silurian shale and a low psa averaging 10 85 m2 g like that of lower cambrian shale pore associated with clay flakes was the main type the pv and psa of isolated om were only approximately 0 6 times and 1 times higher than that of corresponding samples respectively for marine shale matrix related pore features are synergy effects of the matrix basis where pre existing space controls the occurrence of porous om and functions as the shelter for omp with an appropriate thermal maturity however extensive diagenesis can overprint the effects of matrixes on pore properties because oil prone kerogen is sensitive to thermal maturity the specific material composition of transitional shale limit pore properties because dominant structured om is thermally stable with limited migration ability and pore contribution hence diagenetic differences and material diversities may be attributed to the discrepancies of pore properties between marine shale and transitional shale

origin of calcite cements and their impact on reservoir heterogeneity in the triassic yanchang formation ordos basin china a combined petrological and geochemical study abstract calcite cement is a typical product of fluid rock interaction in petroleum reservoirs and its migration has a major impact on reservoir heterogeneity a case study of a closed diagenetic system was carried out on the upper triassic yanchang formation of ordos basin china the most successful exploration region for tight sandstone oil in china the investigated sandstones are mainly lithic arkoses q31f42l27 three occurrences of calcite cement are the most important diagenetic minerals affecting reservoir quality early calcite completely filling intergranular volumes late calcite filling pores after chlorite coating distributed in oil layers or locally replacing feldspar and crystal stock calcite typically distributed in dry layers 13c values of the sandstones are in the range 9 69 to 2 05 indicating that calcite is derived mainly from thermodynamic decarboxylation of organic matter dark mudstone interbedded with sandstone and hydrocarbon emplacement are the two crucial sources of organic fluid providing sufficient ca2 mn2 fe2 and mg2 for calcite precipitation through interaction with feldspar and other silicates such as dissolution and replacement together with transformation of smectite to illite manganese was continuously enriched in calcite during burial diagenesis driven by compaction of interbedded mudstone and fluid overpressure calcite migrated widely into calcite cemented zones cczs where fluid rock interaction was strong such as in the margins of sandstone bodies intrastratal sandstones with original high permeability zones and thin sandstones thereby forming an important organic co2 sink potential high quality reservoirs are distributed mainly in the central part of the closed system restricted by calcite cemented zones and are an exploration target our data suggest that frequently alternating sandstone and mudstone sequences comprise a complete organic co2 source sink system controlling the migration of calcite cement in a closed diagenetic system and reservoir heterogeneity by fluid rock interaction

development of organic porosity in the woodford shale with increasing thermal maturity abstract using a combination of focused ion beam milling and scanning electron microscopy we describe the evolution of secondary organic porosity in eight woodford shale late devonian early mississippian samples with mean random vitrinite reflectance values ranging from 0 51 ro to 6 36 ro organic porosity was observed to be absent in samples with vitrinite reflectance values of up to 0 90 ro with the first appearance of secondary pores starting with the 1 23 ro sample porosity in the organic matter was unexpectedly absent in a sample with a vitrinite reflectance of 2 00 ro however organic pores were again found in samples with higher thermal maturities porosity when present did not appear to be uniformly distributed among the organic matter that was within less than a micron of each other suggesting important differences in composition of the organic matter thin regions of organic matter were observed between grains raising the possibility that small amounts of the deposited organic matter were compacted between grains to form thin layers and or the structures are part of the secondary organic matter interpreted to be post oil bitumen which was left behind as a residue during oil migration through the shale some regions of porous organic matter appeared to be grain protected whereas others did not which indicates that these non protected porous organic regions may be stress supporting with porosity intact under in situ reservoir conditions these observations suggest that thermal maturity alone is insufficient to predict porosity development in organic shales and other factors such as organic matter composition complicate porosity development

investigation of pore structure and fractal characteristics of marine continental transitional shales from longtan formation using micp gas adsorption and nmr guizhou china abstract organic rich shale samples from marine continental transitional facies of the late permian longtan formation in southwestern guizhou were investigated using organic petrography analysis x ray diffraction analysis mercury intrusion capillary pressure experiments gas adsorption experiments nuclear magnetic resonance scanning electron microscopy image analysis and multi fractal theory to quantitatively and qualitatively investigate the full size pore structure and fractal characteristics of the shale the correlations among the total organic carbon toc content mineral composition and pore structure were discussed the fractal dimension was used to evaluate the production potential of a shale reservoir results show that samples have a high toc content 4 38 wt on average low permeability less than 0 001 md and complex pore structure the pore volume pv varies from 0 001997 cm3 g to 0 03653 cm3 g with an average of 0 02864 cm3 g and the specific surface area ssa varies from 14 144 m2 g to 29 740 m2 g with an average of 21 533 m2 g mesopores diameter between 2 and 50 nm according to iupac are the predominant contributors to the pore volume while mesopores and micropores diameter less than 2 nm are the main contributors to the specific surface area the shale samples with higher toc and clay mineral content have larger pvs and ssas and higher fractal dimensions than those that do not a high fractal dimension indicates a rough pore surface and complicated pore structure shale with higher d1 and da representing the pore surface roughness and the adsorption space respectively has high adsorption capacity and favors gas accumulation while shale with higher d2 and ds representing the pore structure complexity and the seepage space respectively has greater flow capability and favors gas diffusion

organic matter hosted pore system marcellus formation devonian pennsylvania the marcellus formation of pennsylvania represents an outstanding example of an organic matter om hosted pore system most pores detectable by field emission scanning electron microscopy fe sem are associated with om instead of mineral matrix in the two wells studied here total organic carbon toc content is a stronger control on om hosted porosity than is thermal maturity the two study wells span a maturity from late wet gas vitrinite reflectance ro 1 0 to dry gas ro 2 1 samples with a toc less than 5 5 wt display a positive correlation between toc and porosity but samples with a toc greater than 5 5 wt display little or no increase in porosity with a further increasing toc in a subset of samples 14 across a range of toc 2 3 13 6 wt the pore volume detectable by fe sem is a small fraction of total porosity ranging from 2 to 32 of the helium porosity importantly the fe sem visible porosity in om decreases significantly with increasing toc diminishing from 30 of om volume to less than 1 of om volume across the range of toc the morphology and size of om hosted pores also vary systematically with toc the interpretation of this anticorrelation between om content and sem visible pores remains uncertain samples with the lowest om porosity higher toc may represent gas expulsion pore collapse that was more complete as a consequence of greater om connectivity and framework compaction whereas samples with higher om porosity lower toc correspond to rigid mineral frameworks that inhibited compactional expulsion of methane filled bubbles alternatively higher toc samples may contain om low initial hydrogen index relatively unreactive that is less prone to development of fe sem detectable pores in this interpretation om type controlled by sequence stratigraphic position is a factor in determining pore size distribution

geochemical changes in the early cambrian interval of the yangtze platform south china implications for hydrothermal influences and paleocean redox conditions abstract the possible triggering mechanisms of the ediacaran cambrian transition in south china have been debated for many years in this study 80 samples from liuchapo niutitang and mingxinsi formations were collected from well yk 1 located in southeastern chongqing a high resolution chemostratigraphic study including evaluation of rare earth elements rees and trace elements was used to elucidate the paleoenvironments of the upper yangtze platform margin the mingxinsi gray shale and the liuchapo formation exhibit flat post archean australian normalized ree patterns with weakly negative ce anomalies which is typical of detritus obvious positive eu anomalies in chert samples of the basal niutitang formation imply a short term influence of hydrothermal fluid the ree patterns of the basal niutitang phosphatic rocks show significant enrichment of heavy rees significantly negative ce anomalies and positive y anomalies similar to the ree distribution pattern in seawater demonstrating that these sediments were produced under oxic seawater conditions moderately positive eu anomalies and positive y anomalies of the lower niutitang shales may indicate mixing of hydrothermal fluids and seawater the flat ree patterns with weak eu anomalies of the upper niutitang shale may have been generated by hydrothermal inputs diluted by detrital materials dramatic increases of ce anomalies in the basal niutitang formation reveal a significant decrease of the oxygen level in seawater trace elements such as ba u v u cu cr zn ni and sr are commonly enriched in these formations compared to the upper continental crust authigenic abundances of al normalized u and al normalized v as well as ratios of th u and v sc are used as indicators of redox conditions these distributions demonstrate that the redox conditions of the bottom water during the ediacaran cambrian transition abruptly changed from oxic in the nemakit daldynian age to anoxic in the early tommotian age and gradually became less reducing in the late tommotian age and the atdabanian age a strong correlation between total organic carbon toc concentrations and ratios of u al and v al in the entire section except in the phosphatic rocks implies non sulfidic conditions most trace elements cannot be used as proxies for redox conditions associated with the phosphatic rocks in the basal niutitang formation because abundant trace elements were especially absorbed in apatite the toc concentrations correlated well with the redox conditions of bottom water we infer that the section deposited in the platform margin was influenced by episodic hydrothermal activities that began at the beginning of the tommotian age and these activities may have terminated at the beginning of the atdabanian age enrichments of organic matter that were mainly derived from the photic zone were controlled by the redox conditions of the bottom water

polyphase thermal evolution in the infra cambrian ara group south oman salt basin as deduced by maturity of solid reservoir bitumen petrographic and organic geochemical analyses on solid reservoir bitumen from the late precambrian to early cambrian ara group indicate polyphase thermal evolution in the south oman salt basin sosb the ara group constitutes a complex petroleum system in the deep subsurface 3 5 km of interior oman salt diapirs encase isolated partly highly overpressured carbonate bodies intra salt stringers which represent a predominantly self charging hydrocarbon system a large number of stringer cores show that reservoir quality is decreased by the presence of solid reservoir bitumen by using different microscopy techniques this solid reservoir bitumen has been identified within pores pore throats and microfractures of the carbonates solid bitumen reflectance measurements brr were converted to vitrinite reflectance vrr using a new improved calibration vitrinite reflectance geothermometry shows that maximum paleo temperatures have a highly heterogeneous distribution paleo temperatures of 380 c were obtained from coke like solid reservoir bitumen which most likely formed from thermal cracking of oil in our model this process is related to hydrothermal fluids deriving from deeper pre salt strata of the sosb which entered the intra salt carbonate stringers during times of basement tectonic activity via hydrofractures this caused the formation of high maturities pyrobitumens in close vicinity to the fractures and precipitation of migrabitumens with increasing distance to the ht source which is supported by the geochemical composition of the solid reservoir bitumens the influx of these fluids into the carbonate stringers is considered to represent a major contribution to their strong overpressures 2007 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

unconventional shale gas systems the mississippian barnett shale of north central texas as one model for thermogenic shale gas assessment shale gas resource plays can be distinguished by gas type and system characteristics the newark east gas field located in the fort worth basin texas is defined by thermogenic gas production from low porosity and low permeability barnett shale the barnett shale gas system a self contained source reservoir system has generated large amounts of gas in the key productive areas because of various characteristics and processes including 1 excellent original organic richness and generation potential 2 primary and secondary cracking of kerogen and retained oil respectively 3 retention of oil for cracking to gas by adsorption 4 porosity resulting from organic matter decomposition and 5 brittle mineralogical composition the calculated total gas in place gip based on estimated ultimate recovery that is based on production profiles and operator estimates is about 204 bcf section 5 78 10 9 m 3 1 73 10 4 m 3 we estimate that the barnett shale has a total generation potential of about 609 bbl of oil equivalent ac ft or the equivalent of 3657 mcf ac ft 84 0 m 3 m 3 assuming a thickness of 350 ft 107 m and only sufficient hydrogen for partial cracking of retained oil to gas a total generation potential of 820 bcf section is estimated of this potential approximately 60 was expelled and the balance was retained for secondary cracking of oil to gas if sufficient thermal maturity was reached gas storage capacity of the barnett shale at typical reservoir pressure volume and temperature conditions and 6 porosity shows a maximum storage capacity of 540 mcf ac ft or 159 scf ton

comparative study on micro pore structure of marine terrestrial and transitional shales in key areas china abstract the purpose of this article is to make a comparative study on the pore structure of different sedimentary facies shales developed in typical areas china results show that the surface area sa and pore volume pv of the over mature marine shales are in the range of 17 83 29 49 m 2 g and 3 65 18 26 ml kg respectively which are much higher than that of the highly mature transitional and less mature terrestrial shales in the range of 0 9 1 9 m 2 g and 2 5 10 9 ml kg respectively in the view of the pore size distribution psd marine shales concentrate at the fine mesopores

geological and geochemical characteristics of marine continental transitional shale from the lower permian taiyuan formation taikang uplift southern north china basin abstract in recent years extensive studies have been conducted on conventional shale gas resources but little work has been performed on the resource potential of marine continental shales this paper takes the lower permian taiyuan shale in the taikang uplift of the southern north china basin as an example to characterize a transitional shale reservoir the results indicate that the taiyuan shale has high toc values averaging 2 67 and contains type iii gas prone organic matter the shale has high ro values averaging 3 44 and tmax ranges from 424 c to 601 c with respect to fracability or brittleness the content of brittle minerals in the taiyuan shale ranges from 21 to 71 averaging 45 55 and the average content of clay minerals is 44 1 based on sem and sem with ar ion milling observation interparticle pores intraparticle pores and microfractures are developed in the taiyuan shale which can provide reservoir space for the accumulation of shale gas organic matter pores rarely appear due to the organic type and high maturity the results of this study can guide the shale gas exploration of taiyuan formation in the taikang uplift of the southern north china basin

shale characteristics in the southeastern ordos basin china implications for hydrocarbon accumulation conditions and the potential of continental shales abstract continental shales in china are generally characterised by low thermal maturity and high clay content characteristics that are significantly different from those of marine shales documented in the usa and elsewhere whether such continental shales have commercial hydrocarbon potential as marine shale in the usa is a question for the china petroleum industry recently vertical drills in the lacustrine shales in the yanchang formation produced an average of two to five tons of oil and 1000 3000 m3 of gas per day by reservoir hydraulic fracturing which demonstrates that the continental shales can also achieve viable hydrocarbon production shale and gas samples collected from the chang 7 c7 and chang 9 c9 members yanchang formation in the southeastern ordos basin were examined for geochemical petrologic and gas content analysis the results show that the c7 and c9 members developed a huge volume of organic rich shales with 2 4 wt toc in the deep or semideep lacustrine characterised primarily by type ii kerogen with a relatively low thermal maturity and a vitrinite reflectance ranging from 0 5 to 1 5 ro which decreases from west to east the hydrocarbon product varies with the thermal maturity in the southwestern corner the gas content measured by canister desorption equals 1 15 3 49 m3 t rock and the gas absorption capacity ranges from 3 to 5 m3 t rock whereas in the eastern part the gas content is low and oil production is 1 4 m3 day on average nanometre scale pores and micro fractures are well developed all of this indicates that the continental shales in the southeastern ordos basin might have huge shale hydrocarbon resources however the clay content of the continental shales of c7 and c9 ranging from 40 to 60 of the bulk mineral content are much higher than for gas produced in marine shales which might lead to significant challenges for successful development

the nature of porosity in organic rich mudstones of the upper jurassic kimmeridge clay formation north sea offshore united kingdom abstract analyses of organic rich mudstones from wells that penetrated the upper jurassic kimmeridge clay formation offshore united kingdom were performed to evaluate the nature of both organic and inorganic rock constituents and their relation to porosity in this world class source rock the formation is at varying levels of thermal maturity ranging from immature in the shallowest core samples to mature in the deepest core samples the intent of this study was to evaluate porosity as a function of both organic macerals and thermal maturity at least four distinct types of organic macerals were observed in petrographic and sem analyses and they all were present across the study area the macerals include in decreasing abundance 1 bituminite admixed with clays 2 elongate lamellar masses alginite or bituminite with small quartz feldspar and clay entrained within it 3 terrestrial vitrinite fusinite semifusinite grains and 4 tasmanites microfossils although pores in all maceral types were observed on ion milled surfaces of all samples the pores largely nanopores with some micropores vary as a function of maceral type importantly pores in the macerals do not vary systematically as a function of thermal maturity insofar as organic pores are of similar size and shape in both the immature and mature kimmeridge rocks if any organic pores developed during the generation of hydrocarbons they were apparently not preserved possibly because of the highly ductile nature of much of the rock constituents of kimmeridge mudstones clays and organic material inorganic pores largely micropores with some nanopores have been observed in all kimmeridge mudstones these pores particularly interparticle i e between clay platelets and intraparticle i e in framboidal pyrite in partially dissolved detrital k feldspar and in both detrital and authigenic dolomite are noteworthy because they compose much of the observable porosity in the shales in both immature and mature samples the absence of a systematic increase in organic porosity as a function of either maceral type or thermal maturity indicates that such porosity was probably unrelated to hydrocarbon generation instead much of the porosity within mudstones of the kimmeridge appears to be largely intraparticle and interparticle adjacent to inorganic constituents so the petroleum storage potential in these organic rich mudstones largely resides in inorganic pores

geochemical evolution of organic rich shales with increasing maturity a stxm and tem study of the posidonia shale lower toarcian northern germany hydrocarbon generation and retention processes occurring within gas shales as a response to increases in thermal maturation are still poorly constrained while efforts have been directed at unravelling the resource potential composition and textures of these economically important unconventional systems their spatial variability in chemistry and structure is still poorly documented at the sub micrometer scale here we have characterized samples of the lower toarcian posidonia shale samples from northern germany at varying stages of thermal maturation using a combination of compositional organic geochemistry and spectromicroscopy techniques including synchrotron based scanning transmission x ray microscopy stxm we document geochemical and mineralogical heterogeneities down to the nanometer scale within the investigated samples as a function of their level of thermal maturity in particular authigenic albite crystals containing nanometric halite inclusions have been documented within the investigated mature and overmature samples the presence of such tracers of palaeobrine carbonate interactions supports a maturation scenario for the lower toarcian posidonia shale intimately related to ascending brine fluids rather than a maturation scenario solely resulting from high heat flows in addition various types of asphaltene and nso rich bitumen have been detected within the same samples very likely genetically derived from thermally degraded organic precursors furthermore the formation of nanoporous pyrobitumen has been inferred for samples of gas window maturity likely resulting from the formation of gaseous hydrocarbons by providing in situ insights into the fate of bitumen and pyrobitumen as a response to the thermal evolution of the macromolecular structure of kerogen the results reported here constitute an important step towards better constraining hydrocarbon generation processes during natural shale gas maturation

assessment of the relative accuracy of hemispheric scale snow cover maps there are several hemispheric scale satellite derived snow cover maps available but none has been fully validated for the period october 23 december 25 2000 we compare snow maps of north america derived from the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer modis and the national oceanic and atmospheric administration noaa national operational hydrologic remote sensing center nohrsc which both rely on satellite data from the visible and near infrared parts of the spectrum we also compare modis and defense meteorological satellite program dmsp special sensor microwave imager ssm i passive microwave snow maps the maps derived from visible and near infrared data are more accurate for mapping snow cover than are the passive microwave derived maps however discrepancies exist as to the location and extent of the snow cover among those maps the large approx 30 km footprint of the ssm i data and the difficulty in distinguishing wet and shallow snow from wet or snow free ground reveal differences up to 5 32 million sq km in the amount of snow mapped using modis versus ssm i data algorithms that utilize both visible and passive microwave data which would take advantage of the all weather mapping ability of the passive microwave data will be refined following the launch of the advanced microwave scanning radiometer amsr in the fall of 2001

analysis of the developmental characteristics and major regulating factors of fractures in marine continental transitional shale gas reservoirs a case study of the carboniferous permian strata in the southeastern ordos basin central china abstract fractures play an important role in the formation of shale gas reservoirs because they can enlarge the transport channels and aggregation spaces and increase the specific surface area of the gas shale for artificial hydraulic fracturing of these reservoirs the natural fracture system must be fully integrated with the artificial fracture system to form an intact fracture system in this study we first comprehensively examined the fractures in 42 shale gas wells using several approaches including a systematic examination and description of the cores and the casting of thin sections a compilation of the statistics of fracture feature parameters and observation of various analytical and test data such as the mineral composition the organic carbon contents and the rock mechanics properties for specimens from the corresponding fractured intervals the data enabled us to thoroughly explore the developmental features and major factors affecting organic rich shale fractures in the upper paleozoic carboniferous permian marine continental transitional coal bearing formation which is located in the southeastern ordos basin our results reveal that in comparison with the paleozoic marine shale in the united states and southern china as well as the paleozoic basin transitional shale in northern china the upper paleozoic black shale in the ordos basin is primarily characterized by a relatively low content of brittle minerals and a high content of clay ingredients the total content of brittle minerals e g quartz feldspar and siderite was approximately 33 which included 27 quartz and 0 3 k feldspar but did not include carbonate the total content of clay minerals reached 64 and was dominated by mixed layer illite smectite i s which accounted for more than 41 of the total clay ingredients the shale accommodated the widespread development of various types of macro and microfractures in the core specimens medium angle slip fractures and horizontal bedding cracks were the most common types of fractures whereas vertical and high angle fractures and horizontal bedding cracks were underdeveloped in the thin sections microfractures arising in organic matter laminations or at their edges as well as those of tectonic origin were the predominant type of fractures and they were mainly short narrow and open overall the surface fracture ratios of the thin sections were concentrated in a range of approximately 0 1 0 3 the developmental level of the fracture was influenced by various factors including tectonism lithology rock mechanics and organic matter and mineral content thus increased developmental level of fractures was correlated with higher paleostructural elevation and increased sand content whereas the developmental level of microfractures was correlated with high lamellation development high level of organic carbon leading to more pronounced laminations and high contents of quartz mixed layer i s and illite leading to low levels of kaolinite these findings were corroborated by other data generated in this study including the rock mechanics results for the upper paleozoic black shale and silty shale the observation results from the cores and from the thin sections sampled from more than 40 shale gas wells and the anomalies of gas logging

nanoscale pore structure and fractal characteristics of a marine continental transitional shale a case study from the lower permian shanxi shale in the southeastern ordos basin china abstract shale samples collected from seven wells in the southeastern ordos basin were tested to investigate quantitatively the pore structure and fractal characteristics of the lower permian shanxi shale which was deposited in a marine continental transitional hereinafter referred to as the transitional environment low pressure nitrogen adsorption data show that the shanxi shale exhibits considerably much lower surface area sa and pore volume pv in the range of 0 6 1 3 m 2 g and 0 25 0 9 ml 100 g respectively type iii kerogen abundant in the transitional shanxi shale were observed to be poorly developed in the organic pores in spite of being highly mature which resulted in a small contribution of organic matter om to the sa and pv instead i s illite smectite mixed clay together with illite jointly contributed mostly to the sa and pv as a result of the large amount of inter layer pores associated with them which were evident in broad ion beam bib imaging and statistical analysis additionally the shanxi shale has fractal geometries of both pore surface and pore structure with the pore surface fractal dimension d1 ranging from 2 16 to 2 42 and the pore structure fractal dimension d2 ranging from 2 49 to 2 68 respectively the d1 values denote a pore surface irregularity increase with an increase in i s and illite content attributed to their more irregular pore surface compared with other mineralogical compositions and om the fractal dimension d2 characterizing the pore structure complexity is closely related to the pore arrangement and connectivity and i s and illite decrease the d2 when their contents increase due to the incremental ordering degree and connectivity of i s or illite hosted pores meanwhile other shale constituents including kaolinite chlorite and om that possess few pores can significantly increase the pore structure complexity by way of pore blocking

characterizing the pore structure in the silurian and permian shales of the sichuan basin china abstract nitrogen sorption and mercury intrusion methods were applied to characterize the pore structure of the lower silurian shales of the long ma xi formation and upper permian shales of the da long formation in the sichuan basin the results indicate that the specific surface areas and porosities of the silurian shales are in the range of 17 83 29 49 m 2 g and 3 65 18 26 respectively the silurian shales show a bimodal pore size distribution and consist of both micropores and nanopores ranging from 30 to 60 m and 1 7 20 nm respectively a strong positive linear correlation between the surface areas and total organic carbon content toc suggests that the organic matter contributes mostly to the amount of specific surface area of the silurian shales whereas the contribution of clay minerals appears to be negligible the organic matter also accounts for 50 70 of the porosity in the silurian shales soluble organic matter in the form of bitumen however has a negative impact on the surface area and porosity of the silurian shales and reduce the amount of surface area and porosity in these shales for the permian shales their surface area and porosity are lower than those of the silurian shales and are in the ranges of 2 20 3 52 m 2 g and of 1 30 4 15 respectively the pore size distribution of the permian shales shows a unimodal pattern of micropores in a size range of 30 60 m their toc and clay mineral contents display poor correlation with the surface areas and suggest that both the organic matter and clay minerals have very low surface areas a clear negative correlation between the porosity and toc in the permian shales indicates that organic matter contributes little or insignificantly to the porosity due to poorly developed organic pores in kerogen because the permian shales are much lower in thermal maturity than the silurian shales furthermore there is a consistent negative linear correlations between the bitumen content and the porosity for both the permian shales and silurian shales and indicate that the bitumen may significantly reduce the porosity of the shales by occupying the pore spaces in the mineral and organic matrix finally it is clear that the lower silurian shales have a greater shale gas potential than the upper permian shales do based on their surface area and porosity

relationship between pore type and pore size of marine shale an example from the sinian cambrian formation upper yangtze region south china abstract to clarify the size distribution of different types of shale pores nine sinian cambrian shale samples from south china were examined using ion milling fe sem nitrogen adsorption and mercury intrusion image based point counting data indicated that nanopores are predominant whereas pores larger than 1 m are absent organic matter hosted pores dominate below 130 nm whereas intraparticle pores within carbonate probably caused by dissolution constitute most pores larger than 400 nm the small amount of residual intraparticle and interparticle pores associated with rigid minerals mostly range from 50 nm to 250 nm a positive relationship was found between the toc and total pore volume measured by nitrogen and mercury the mercury volume of pores larger than 300 nm increased with increasing dolomite and decreasing clay mineral content the statistics from image analysis and the relationship between pore volume and shale components were in good agreement indicating that different types of pores have their own relative restricted size range generally intrap pores are larger than pores associated with rigid minerals whereas the om pores and interp pores associated with om or clay are the smallest through a comparison with other less matured shale formations the highly matured equivalent vitrinite reflectance above 3 sinian cambrian shale in south china was characterized in this study as those with smaller interp pores which is probably due to a stronger compacting effect

mechanisms of shale gas storage implications for shale gas exploration in china this article reviews the mechanisms of shale gas storage and discusses the major risks or uncertainties for shale gas exploration in china at a given temperature and pressure the gas sorption capacities of organic rich shales are primarily controlled by the organic matter richness but may be significantly influenced by the type and maturity of the organic matter mineral composition especially clay content moisture content pore volume and structure resulting in different ratios of gas sorption capacity gsc to total organic carbon content for different shales in laboratory experiments the gsc of organic rich shales increases with increasing pressure and decreases with increasing temperature under geologic conditions assuming hydrostatic pressure gradient and constant thermal gradient the gsc increases initially with depth due to the predominating effect of pressure passes through a maximum and then decreases because of the influence of increasing temperature at greater depth this pattern of variation is quite similar to that observed for coals and is of great significance for understanding the changes in gsc of organic rich shales over geologic time as a function of burial history at an elevated temperature and pressure and with the presence of moisture the gas sorption capacities of organic rich shales are quite low as a result adsorption alone cannot protect sufficient gas for high maturity organic rich shales to be commercial gas reservoirs two models are proposed to predict the variation of gsc and total gas content over geologic time as a function of burial history high contents of free gas in organic rich shales can be preserved in relatively closed systems loss of free gas during postgeneration uplift and erosion may result in undersaturation the total gas contents lower than the sorption capacity and is the major risk for gas exploration in marine organic rich shales in china

a kinematic model of southern california we propose a kinematic model for southern california based on late quaternary slip rates and orientations of major faults in the region internally consistent motions are determined assuming that these faults bound rigid blocks relative to north america most of california west of the san andreas fault is moving parallel to the san andreas fault through the transverse ranges and not parallel to the motion of the pacific plate this is accomplished by counterclockwise rotation of california south of the san andreas fault and by the westward movement of central california north of the gar lock fault the velocities of the blocks are calculated along several paths in southern california that begin in the mojave desert and end off the california coast a path that crosses the western transverse ranges accumulates the accepted relative north america pacific plate velocity whereas paths to the north and south result in a significant missing component of motion this implies the existence of a zone of active deformation in southern california that is interpreted to include the western transverse ranges and northwest trending predominately strike slip faults close to the coast both north and south of the transverse ranges strain on this system accounts for about a third of the total north america pacific plate motion

characterization of gas shale pore systems by porosimetry pycnometry surface area and field emission scanning electron microscopy transmission electron microscopy image analyses examples from the barnett woodford haynesville marcellus and doig units the nanometer scaled pore systems of gas shale reservoirs were investigated from the barnett marcellus woodford and haynesville gas shales in the united states and the doig formation of northeastern british columbia canada the purpose of this article is to provide awareness of the nature and variability in pore structures within gas shales and not to provide a representative evaluation on the previously mentioned north american reservoirs to understand the pore system of these rocks the total porosity pore size distribution surface area organic geochemistry mineralogy and image analyses by electron microscopy were performed total porosity from helium pycnometry ranges between 2 5 and 6 6 total organic carbon content ranges between 0 7 and 6 8 wt and vitrinite reflectance measured between 1 45 and 2 37 the gas shales in the united states are clay and quartz rich with the doig formation samples being quartz and carbonate rich and clay poor higher porosity samples have higher values because of a greater abundance of mesopores compared with lower porosity samples with decreasing total porosity micropore volumes relatively increase whereas the sum of mesopores and macropore volumes decrease focused ion beam milling field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy provide high resolution 5 nm images of pore distribution and geometries image analysis provides a visual appreciation of pore systems in gas shale reservoirs but is not a statistically valid method to evaluate gas shale reservoirs macropores and mesopores are observed as either intergranular porosity or are confined to kerogen rich aggregates and show no preferred orientation or align parallel with the laminae of the shale networks of mesopores are observed to connect with the larger macropores within the kerogen rich aggregates

pore types in the barnett and woodford gas shales contribution to understanding gas storage and migration pathways in fine grained rocks the identification of organoporosity microscale and nanoscale pores within organic matter in shales its importance to storage and perhaps transfer of gas molecules through shales and methods for gathering three dimensional images of the pores such as by argon ion milling and or field emission scanning electron microscopy have all been well documented and discussed for unconventional gas shales however other types of pores exist within shales that can be important to storage and migration of gas and oil and other technologies are available for their identification and imaging the different pore types found in the barnett and woodford shales are described and classified in this article scanning electron microscopy revealed the presence of porous floccules in both the barnett and woodford shales which appear similar to laboratory produced floccules and to those in other ancient shales published experimental and observational studies indicate that floccules are hydraulically equivalent to coarser grains and are transported by traction processes current induced microsedimentary structures and textures within the barnett and woodford shales as well as the preserved floccules suggest such processes were active during transport and deposition pore spaces between the floccules are open and can provide storage space as well as permeability pathways for gas molecules through the shales pores are also found within organic matter that occurs both as discrete particles and as adsorbed coatings around clay grains in the shale they are referred to here as organopores porous fecal pellets are also common in the barnett shale preserved fossil fragments such as organic walled spores and inorganic sponge spicules have hollow central chambers which may remain partially or completely open even after burial intraparticle pores occur between grains of various minerals e g pyrite framboids microchannels within shale matrix which may be the bounding surfaces of scours or microsedimentary structures may also provide permeability pathways for hydrocarbon migration mircrofractures are also common and their initiation might be related to mineral crystal structure when present in sufficient quantity these pore types offer potential gas and oil molecule storage spaces and permeability pathways through the shales

a preliminary study on the pore characterization of lower silurian black shales in the chuandong thrust fold belt southwestern china using low pressure n2 adsorption and fe sem methods although lower silurian black shales within and around the sichuan basin have received renewed attention during the past few years because of their potential prospectivity for shale gas studies associated with shale gas reservoir evaluation are still rare in this study eight black shale core samples were collected from a well drilled recently in the chuandong thrust fold belt southwestern china and their geochemistry and pore structures were investigated using low pressure n2 adsorption analysis and field emission scanning electron microscopy fe sem observations the results show that the black shales have total organic carbon toc values ranging from 1 01 to 3 98 and their equivalent vitrinite reflectance values are in the range of 2 84 3 05 both mineral matrix and organic matter pores are well developed with pore sizes ranging from several to several hundred nanometers the total porosity for the eight samples ranges from 2 60 to 4 74 and the percentages of organic matter pores are estimated to be in the range of 31 62 the total surface area ranges from 5 06 m2 g to 19 32 m2 g and the micropore 2 nm surface area estimated by the t plot method ranges from 3 13 m2 g to 9 27 m2 g the toc values have positive relationships with the total porosity total surface area and the micropore 2 nm volume and surface area indicating toc may be an effective parameter for shale gas reservoir evaluation in the studied area

nanoscale pore characteristics of the lower cambrian niutitang formation shale a case study from well yuke 1 in the southeast of chongqing china the lower cambrian niutitang formation shale is one of the most important shales being studied for unconventional development in china in this work we focused on 21 core samples of niutitang shale from well yuke 1 in the southeast of chongqing to better understand their vertical reservoir characteristics and pore evolution using complementary approaches of x ray diffraction n2 and co2 adsorption petrology microscope and field emission scanning electron microscopy we conducted a series of analyses for pore volume pore size distribution surface area fractal characterization organic geochemistry petrology and mineralogy results indicate that most micropores 50 nm are composed of organic pores and inorganic pores meso macropore volume per unit of total organic carbon toc content dramatically decreases with an increase of maturity and extent of diagenesis meanwhile the toc normalized micropore volume also rapidly declines after maturity ro values were higher than 3 13 the surface fractal dimension d1 for relative n2 pressure p p0 0 5 with capillary condensation and surface fractal dimension d2 for p p0 0 5 with mono and multi layer adsorption derived from n2 sorption isotherms can be used to indicate the pore characteristics d1 is controlled by the percentages of micropore volume d2 seems to be affected by the clay mineral contents and thermal maturity

pore characterization of organic rich lower cambrian shales in qiannan depression of guizhou province southwestern china abstract nine organic rich shale samples of lower cambrian black shales were collected from a recently drilled well in the qiannan depression guizhou province where they are widely distributed with shallower burial depth than in sichuan basin and their geochemistry and pore characterization were investigated the results show that the lower cambrian shales in qiannan depression are organic rich with toc content ranging from 2 81 to 12 9 thermally overmature with equivalent vitrinite reflectance values in the range of 2 92 3 25 and clay contents are high and range from 32 4 to 53 2 the samples have a total helium porosity ranging from 2 46 to 4 13 and total surface area in the range of 9 08 37 19 m2 g the estimated porosity in organic matters defined as the ratio of organic pores to the volume of total organic matters based on the plot of toc vs helium porosity is about 10 for the lower cambrian shales in qiannan depression and is far lower than that of the lower silurian shales 36 in and around sichan basin this indicates that either the organic pores in the lower cambrian shale samples have been more severely compacted than or they did not develop organic pores as abundantly as the lower silurian shales our studies also reveal that the micropore volumes determined by dubinin radushkevich dr equation is usually overestimated and this overestimation is closely related to the non micropore surface area of shales i e the surface area of meso and macro pores however the modified bet equation can remove this overestimation and be conveniently used to evaluate the micropore volumes surface area and the non micropore surface areas of micropore rich shales

mechanism of shale gas occurrence insights from comparative study on pore structures of marine and lacustrine shales abstract the exploration practices of marine and lacustrine shale gas in the upper yangtze platform south china show that there is a huge difference in gas content which is mainly related to the difference of pore structure this study is focused on marine longmaxi and lacustrine da anzhai shales in the upper yangtze platform and their pore structure characteristics were compared and the mechanism of shale gas occurrence were discussed first the pore structures of marine and lacustrine shales were characterized and the effects of organic matter abundance maturity and inorganic minerals on porosity were investigated then the contributions of different components to porosity were evaluated and the occurrence mode of methane in the pores of marine and lacustrine shales was established the results show that 1 three pore types can be observed in both marine and lacustrine shales organic matter hosted pores om pores framework minerals associated pores fm pores and clay minerals associated pores cm pores om pores are more developed in marine shale and cm pores are more developed in lacustrine shale 2 low pressure gas adsorption lpga results show that the micropores of marine shale are dominated by pores of 0 4 0 7 nm and the micropores of lacustrine shale are dominated by pores of 0 5 0 9 nm while the mesopores of marine shale are dominated by pores of 2 10 nm and the mesopores of lacustrine shale are dominated by pores of 3 30 nm which are consistent with mip results 3 organic matter has an impact on porosity of marine and continental shales but is not the most important controlling factor and the contribution of organic matter to porosity in marine shale is greater than the contribution of organic matter to porosity in lacustrine shale shale porosity increases first and then decreases with the increase of maturity which may be related to the carbonization of organic matter 4 om pores and cm pores tend to be preserved due to the presence of rigid grains that form rigid frameworks preventing these pores from collapsing fm pores are mainly related to the dissolution of framework minerals by organic acids and these dissolution pores can greatly improve the porosity and permeability of shale 5 quantification of porosity as related to mineralogy shows that om pores contribute approximately 37 to total porosity of marine shale and 24 to total porosity of lacustrine shale and cm pores contribute approximately 53 to total porosity of marine shale and 67 to total porosity of lacustrine shale 6 shale gas occurrence is mainly controlled by the distribution mode of pore systems which are composed of om pores fm pores and cm pores it is due to higher percentage on om pores and lower percentage on cm pores that gas content of marine shale is generally higher than that of lacustrine shale

fractured shale gas systems the first commercial united states natural gas production 1821 came from an organic rich devonian shale in the appalachian basin understanding the geological and geochemical nature of organic shale formations and improving their gas producibility have subsequently been the challenge of millions of dollars worth of research since the 1970s shale gas systems essentially are continuous type biogenic predominant thermogenic or combined biogenic thermogenic gas accumulations characterized by widespread gas saturation subtle trapping mechanisms seals of variable lithology and relatively short hydrocarbon migration distances shale gas may be stored as free gas in natural fractures and intergranular porosity as gas sorbed onto kerogen and clay particle surfaces or as gas dissolved in kerogen and bitumen five united states shale formations that presently produce gas commercially exhibit an unexpectedly wide variation in the values of five key parameters thermal maturity expressed as vitrinite reflectance sorbed gas fraction reservoir thickness total organic carbon content and volume of gas in place the degree of natural fracture development in an otherwise low matrix permeability shale reservoir is a controlling factor in gas producibility to date unstimulated commercial production has been achievable in only a small proportion of shale wells those that intercept natural fracture networks in most other cases a successful shale gas well requires hydraulic stimulation together the devonian antrim shale of the michigan basin and devonian ohio shale of the appalachian basin accounted for about 84 of the total 380 bcf of shale gas produced in 1999 however annual gas production is steadily increasing from three other major organic shale formations that subsequently have been explored and developed the devonian new albany shale in the illinois basin the mississippian barnett shale in the fort worth basin and the cretaceous lewis shale in the san juan basin in the basins for which estimates have been made shale gas resources are substantial with in place volumes of 497 783 tcf the estimated technically recoverable resource exclusive of the lewis shale ranges from 31 to 76 tcf in both cases the ohio shale accounts for the largest share

morphology genesis and distribution of nanometer scale pores in siliceous mudstones of the mississippian barnett shale research on mudrock attributes has increased dramatically since shale gas systems have become commercial hydrocarbon production targets one of the most significant research questions now being asked focuses on the nature of the pore system in these mudrocks our work on siliceous mudstones from the mississippian barnett shale of the fort worth basin texas shows that the pores in these rocks are dominantly nanometer in scale nanopores we used scanning electron microscopy to characterize barnett pores from a number of cores and have imaged pores as small as 5 nm key to our success in imaging these nanopores is the use of ar ion beam milling this methodology provides flat surfaces that lack topography related to differential hardness and are fundamental for high magnification imaging nanopores are observed in three main modes of occurrence most pores are found in grains of organic matter as intraparticle pores many of these grains contain hundreds of pores intraparticle organic nanopores most commonly have irregular bubblelike elliptical cross sections and range between 5 and 750 nm with the median nanopore size for all grains being approximately 100 nm internal porosities of up to 20 2 have been measured for whole grains of organic matter based on point count data from scanning electron microscopy analysis these nanopores in the organic matter are the predominant pore type in the barnett mudstones and they are related to thermal maturation nanopores are also found in bedding parallel wispy organic rich laminae as intraparticle pores in organic grains and as interparticle pores between organic matter but this mode is not common although less abundant nanopores are also locally present in fine grained matrix areas unassociated with organic matter and as nano to microintercrystalline pores in pyrite framboids intraparticle organic nanopores and pyrite framboid intercrystalline pores contribute to gas storage in barnett mudstones we postulate that permeability pathways within the barnett mudstones are along bedding parallel layers of organic matter or a mesh network of organic matter flakes because this material contains the most pores

sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of the shanxi formation lower permian in the northwestern ordos basin china an alternative sequence model for fluvial strata abstract the lower permian shanxi formation in the northwestern ordos basin was deposited in fluvial environments under warm and humid climatic conditions braided anastomosing and meandering fluvial facies associations can be recognized in the lower middle and upper parts of the shanxi formation respectively they form a complete type 1 fluvial sequence based on this sequence as well as on the analysis of base level changes and their effect on fluvial deposition an alternative sequence model for fluvial strata is proposed the lowstand systems tract in the model comprises braided river deposits the transgressive systems tract consists mainly of fine grained anastomosing river deposits and meandering river deposits dominate in the highstand systems tract braided sandstones in the lowstand systems tract seem to be widely distributed and have high lateral continuity anastomosing channel sand bodies in the transgressive systems tract appear to be isolated and display relative low lateral continuity