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

The composition and its impact on the methane sorption of lacustrine shales from the Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation, Ordos Basin, China

“…Illite is generally the most abundant clay mineral in other gas shales (Chalmers and Bustin, 2008a;Han et al, 2013;Bustin, 2007, 2008). The dominance of mixed layers of illite and smectite has been observed for black shales in The Netherlands (Gasparik et al, 2012) and in Upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian shales from the Ordos Basin in China (Ding et al, 2013). The mineralogy can greatly affect the brittleness of shales (Jarvie et al, 2007).…”

“…The Ordos Basin is a large asymmetrical syncline with a broad, gently dipping eastern limb and a narrow, steeply dipping western limb. The Tianhuan Sag forms the axis of the syncline (Ding et al, 2013). The Yishan slope, which covers the largest area of the Ordos Basin, dips at less than 1 toward the west.…”

Investigation of Fracturing Network Propagation in Random Naturally Fractured and Laminated Block Experiments

“…How to maximize the total stimulated reservoir volume plays a major role in successful economic gas production for shale gas. Due to the geological setting, the Ordos Basin is located in the central part of the North China plate, and is characterized by weak tectonism, under developed faults, and relief strata [22]. Thus, it differsfrom several other prominent shale distribution areas, includingthe major shale-gas-producing basins in the United States and Sichuan basins.…”

“…They are often small scale and the majority present in the form of microfractures [23,24]. The non-tectonic microfractures are small, high-aspect-ratio cracks in shale formations that result from differential stresses [22,23,25]. A detailed discussion of random non-tectonic microfracture generation and how it influences the hydraulic fracturing effectiveness has been presented by Wang et al [25]; in addition, the effect of silty lamined have been studied using physical modeling experiments, but the effects of natural fractures on hydraulic fracturing have not been introduced in their studied cement models [26].…”

Investigations on the shale oil and gas potential of Westphalian mudstone successions in the Campine Basin, NE Belgium (well KB174): Palaeoenvironmental and palaeogeographical controls

“…Nonetheless, recently a lot of research on this topic has been performed (Ding et al 2013;Guo et al, 2014;Ji et al, 2014;Tang et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2015;Yang et al, 2015). The study presented here will evaluate the source rock potential and hydrocarbon composition of mud rock sequences (shale beds) directly overlying the Westphalian coal seams.…”