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New Albany Shale Gas Project – A Joint Industry Project Sponsored by the
Natural Gas
Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA)
a report by
Iraj Salehi
1
and Angelica Chiriboga
2
1. Manager, Shale Gas Research; 2. Project Engineer, Gas Technology Institute (GTI)
The Gas Technology Institute (GTI) is engaged in a research and Massachusetts, Pinnacle Technologies and ResTech – are participating
development project aimed at the development of techniques and in this project.
methods for increasing the success ratio and productivity of New
Albany shale gas wells to a level at which the otherwise non- GTI has assembled a team of highly qualified experts with
commercial wells may become commercial producers. These efforts outstanding background and experience to implement the project. A
are being funded by the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for comprehensive integrated project plan for geological, geochemical,
America (RPSEA) and supported by several producing companies reservoir engineering and production stimulation studies and a
targeting the development of the New Albany gas shale. Although detailed field data acquisition and testing plan addressing all major
the project is aimed at the development of New Albany shale gas, issues have been prepared. Figure 2 is a graphical representation of
the results will be applicable to other gas shale formations such as the project structure, depicting the flow of information and data
Marcellus, Woodford and Mancos, as well as other low-permeability between various project elements.
gas-bearing formations.
As with other shale gas resources, production from the New Albany
The New Albany shale formation occurs in Illinois, Indiana and shale is primarily from natural fractures. However, because of
Kentucky, but to date gas production has been primarily from extremely low matrix permeability and limited open natural
western Indiana and south-west Kentucky. Figure 1 shows the fractures, commercial production from the New Albany shale can be
boundary of the New Albany shale within the Illinois Basin and achieved only by interconnecting the natural fractures through
includes the hydrogen index contours for the most promising areas hydraulic fracture stimulations. As such, the primary objectives of
in the basin.
1
The volumes of in-place and technically recoverable gas this project are to develop techniques and methods for identification
in New Albany shale have been estimated to be 86–160 trillion cubic and characterisation of natural fractures and to develop effective
feet (tcf) and 1.9–19.2tcf, respectively.
1
fracture stimulation techniques, leading to commercially acceptable
production rates and ultimate recovery. It needs to be mentioned
The New Albany shale project is a field-based industry co-operative that the New Albany shale is underlaid by a water-bearing Devonian
project with producer involvement and support that combines formation; this geology adds an additional problem for effective
scientific and technical analyses with field data acquisition, testing hydraulic fracturing, as the fractures should not be allowed to grow
and field validation. Nine producing companies – Atlas America, into the water-bearing zone. A brief description of the major
Aurora Oil and Gas Corporation, Breitburn Energy, CNXGas, elements of the project is given in the remainder of this article.
Diversified Operating Corp., NGAS, Noble Energy, Rex Energy and
Trendwell Energy Corp. – and nine research organisations – GTI, Geological Studies
Texas A&M University, Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG), University Because of the low matrix permeability characteristic of the New
of Texas, West Virginia University, Amherst College, University of Albany shale, natural fractures are the main contributors to flow, and
production at a commercial rate can be achieved only by proper
placement of horizontal wells relative to dominant fracture orientation.
Iraj Salehi is Manager of Shale Gas Research at the
Gas Technology Institute (GTI). He began his research
High-permeability areas (sweet spots) occur in regions with high
and development carreer at GTI’s predecessor – the
fracture intensity. The goal of this task is to characterise the key
Gas Research Institute (GRI) – and has experience in
fracture attributes of orientation, size distribution, intensity and
the development of advanced technologies aimed at
enhanced production from tight gas sands, gas shale porosity/occlusion patterns. The work includes application of new
and coal seams. Mr Salehi holds a BSc in geology
techniques to quantify the spatial arrangement of fractures, including
from the University of Tehran, a DIC in petroleum
reservoir engineering from Imperial College of Science
potential clusters of large open fractures. Key parameters will be
and Technology and an MSc in geophysics from assessed through examination of a combination of data types. The
Stanford University.
most important will be cores, vertical and horizontal well image logs
E:
iraj.salehi@gastechnology.org and drilling and production data. Fracture orientation, intensity and
Angelica Chiriboga is a Petroleum Engineer at the Gas spatial distribution information will be obtained from core and image
Technology Institute (GTI), where she is currently
log data. Samples will be selected from cores to be made into polished
engaged in reservoir engineering studies of the New
Albany Shale. Before joining the GTI, she worked for
thin sections to examine the mineral fill of the fractures. Scanning
PDVSA for nearly eight years. She holds a BSc in electron microscope (SEM) imagery will also be used. At the end of the
petroleum engineering from the University of Zulia
first year, a suite of fracture attribute characterisations for selected
in Venezuela.
areas will be prepared, which may include maps for attributes such as
orientation and models for attributes such as mineral fill, size
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© TOUCH BRIEFINGS 2009
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