A critical evaluation of unconventional gas recovery from the marcellus shale, northeastern United States

Abstract

The Marcellus tight gas shale represents a significant resource within the northeastern United States. It is both a large reserve, with an estimated 30 to 300 TCF of recoverable gas, and is close to some of the largest prospective markets in the country. However, production is fraught with technological obstacles, the most significant of which include prospecting, access by drilling, stimulation, and recovery. Prospecting is difficult because viability of the reservoir relies both on the original gas in place and in the ability to access that gas through pre-existing fractures that may be developed through stimulation. Drilling is a challenge since drilling costs typically comprise 50% of the cost of the wells and access to the reservoir is improved with horizontal drilling which may access a longer productive zone within the reservoir than cheaper vertical wells. Finally, stimulation methods are necessary to improve gas yields and to reduce the environmental impacts of both consumptive water use and the subsequent problems of safe disposal of fracwater waste. We discuss the challenges involved in the economic recovery of gas from tight gas shales in general and the Marcellus in particular.

Temporal analysis of flowback and produced water composition from shale oil and gas operations: Impact of frac fluid characteristics

“…In addition, fracturing fluid formulations may influence the volume of water required for a particular fracturing treatment. On average, water consumption to complete horizontal wells is between 2-5 milion gallons of water (Goodwin et al, 2012;Hickenbottom et al, 2013;Lee et al, 2011;Nicot and Scanlon, 2012;Rahm, 2011;Stephenson et al, 2011;Suarez, 2012).…”

Preliminary Evaluation of Shale Gas Reservoirs: Appraisal of Different Well-Pad Designs via Performance Metrics

“…Commonly, the fracture stages are located perpendicular to the natural fracture network to intersect as many fractures as possible. 43 In reservoir simulation, a hydraulic fracture can be modeled as a complex geometry, commonly driven by microseismic data, 30 or as a simple planar structure. 40 Usually, due to limitations in the information about the formation, preliminary assessments of the performance of a fracture are based on the planar structure approach.…”

Pairing Integrated Gasification and Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) in Semiarid Environments

“…In particular horizontal drilling maximizes the ability to source multiple holes from the bottom of a single inclined hole and to thereby maximize the volume of the reservoir accessed relative to the drilling cost. 13 It is not clear whether drilling technology in hard rock is sufficiently advanced to allow the latter, but this may be a necessary development to allow the viability of such projects. In all of these instances, the reservoir is typically stimulated from a single injector well, and secondary withdrawal wells then drilled to intersect the fringes of the stimulated reservoir volume.…”