Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Eagle Ford Group and associated Cenomanian–Turonian Strata, U.S. Gulf Coast, Texas, 2018

Whidden, Katherine J.; Pitman, Janet K.; Pearson, Ofori N.; Paxton, Stanley T.; Kinney, Scott A.; Gianoutsos, Nicholas J.; Schenk, Christopher J.; Leathers-Miller, Heidi M.; Birdwell, Justin E.; Brownfield, Michael E.; Burke, Lauri A.; Dubiel, Russell F.; French, Katherine L.; Gaswirth, Stephanie B.; Haines, Seth S.; Le, Phuong A.; Marra, Kristen R.; Mercier, Tracey J.; Tennyson, Marilyn E.; Woodall, Cheryl A.

doi:10.3133/fs20183033

Cited by 23 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This water assessment builds on the 2018 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) petroleum assessment of estimated, undiscovered technically recoverable petroleum in the Eagle Ford Group. 4 In contrast to the study by Ikonnikova et al (2017), 24 which focused on economics and statistical analyses, this study estimates volumes of water for drilling, water and proppant required to hydraulically fracture, and volumes of produced formation water based on geology and oil and gas production data. Understanding this water−energy relationship can inform future planning of petroleum development in the Eagle Ford Group and other formations containing continuous petroleum resources.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…4 The Eagle Ford ranks in the top five USGS continuous resource assessments nationwide for both oil and gas. 4 Despite the abundant natural gas, drilling in the Eagle Ford has primarily targeted the oil-prone areas of the play because the low price of natural gas in recent years and competing gas supply from other basins. 3,4,49 Petroleum Development in the Eagle ford.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4 Despite the abundant natural gas, drilling in the Eagle Ford has primarily targeted the oil-prone areas of the play because the low price of natural gas in recent years and competing gas supply from other basins. 3,4,49 Petroleum Development in the Eagle ford. In the fall of 2008, Petrohawk Energy drilled an Eagle Ford discovery well in LaSalle County, Texas.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Examining Water and Proppant Demand, and Produced Water Production, Associated with Petroleum Resource Development in the Eagle Ford Group, Texas

Gianoutsos,

Haines,

Varela

et al. 2024

Energy Fuels

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

More than 20,000 horizontal wells have been drilled and hydraulically fractured in the Eagle Ford Group since the discovery well in 2008, but a considerable amount of undiscovered petroleum remains. Recently, drilled wells have been hydraulically fractured with an average of nearly 13 million gallons of water and 16 million lb of sand, yielding a million or more gallons of produced water. To inform future petroleum development in the Eagle Ford, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted a water and proppant assessment using a geology-based approach that builds on the 2018 USGS assessment of undiscovered technically recoverable petroleum. Using probabilistic input values and a Monte Carlo simulation, we determined that production of the remaining undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas in the Eagle Ford Group would require approximately 687,565 Mgal (millions of gallons) of water and 839,702,000,000 lb of proppant (both are mean values of output distributions). This possible future petroleum production would also include 176,817 Mgal (mean value) of produced formation water. On average, oil wells require water volumes that are approximately twice the volume of oil that will be produced, and Eagle Ford gas wells require approximately 5.21 Mgal of water per billion cubic feet of gas (bcfg). Produced formation water volumes are approximately 60% of the produced oil volume and, for gas wells, will yield approximately 1 Mgal formation water per bcfg. Understanding the water and proppant requirements associated with petroleum exploration and the resulting volume of produced water can inform decisions regarding the future of Eagle Ford development.

show abstract

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Examining Water and Proppant Demand, and Produced Water Production, Associated with Petroleum Resource Development in the Eagle Ford Group, Texas

Gianoutsos,

Haines,

Varela

et al. 2024

Energy Fuels

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The Eagle Ford Group is a productive tight oil and shale gas play located in southeastern Texas which the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently estimated to contain 8.5 billion barrels and 66 trillion ft 3 (mean values) of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas, respectively. 20 AFM-IR chemical maps from solid bitumen grains generated at ∼1450, ∼1600, and ∼1700 cm −1 corresponding to methylene (CH 2 ) scissoring, sp 2 carbon− carbon (CC) stretching, and carbonyl (CO) stretching modes, respectively, allow for the extraction of atomic H/C and O/C proxies at ultrahigh spatial resolutions. Furthermore, these AFM-IR data reveal the presence of both inter-and intragranular solid bitumen molecular heterogeneity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here we utilize AFM-IR to investigate the molecular composition of a series of solid bitumen grains present in samples from the Late Cretaceous Eagle Ford Shale that span a natural thermal maturity gradient from the early oil generation stage to the dry gas window. The Eagle Ford Group is a productive tight oil and shale gas play located in southeastern Texas which the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently estimated to contain 8.5 billion barrels and 66 trillion ft 3 (mean values) of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas, respectively . AFM-IR chemical maps from solid bitumen grains generated at ∼1450, ∼1600, and ∼1700 cm –1 corresponding to methylene (CH 2 ) scissoring, sp 2 carbon–carbon (CC) stretching, and carbonyl (CO) stretching modes, respectively, allow for the extraction of atomic H/C and O/C proxies at ultrahigh spatial resolutions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanoscale Molecular Composition of Solid Bitumen from the Eagle Ford Group across a Natural Thermal Maturity Gradient

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Microscopic solid bitumen is a petrographically defined secondary organic matter residue produced during petroleum generation and subsequent oil transformation. The presence of solid bitumen impacts many reservoir properties including porosity, permeability, and hydrocarbon generation and storage, among others. Furthermore, solid bitumen reflectance is an important parameter for assessing the thermal maturity of formations with little to no vitrinite. While the molecular composition of solid bitumen will strongly impact associated parameters such as the development of organic matter porosity, hydrocarbon generation, and optical reflectance, assessing the molecular composition of solid bitumen in situ within shale reservoirs can be challenging due to the small grain sizes (often ≤1 μm in diameter) and the inherent heterogeneity of shale formations. Here we employ the recently developed atomic force microscopy based infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR) technique to investigate solid bitumen molecular composition in situ within shale samples from the Late Cretaceous Eagle Ford Group. These samples possess sulfur-rich type II kerogens that span a natural thermal maturity gradient from early oil generation to the dry gas window. The application of AFM-IR allows for the rapid collection of thousands of compositional measurements from solid bitumen with ∼50 nm resolution. Our results indicate that (i) solid bitumen from the lower Eagle Ford displays both intra- and intergranular variation in the relative abundance of CH2, CC, and CO moieties present; (ii) this molecular variation tends to, but does not always, decrease with an increase in thermal maturity; and (iii) the solid bitumen composition between samples, from an atomic ratio perspective, is more similar than analysis of bulk kerogen isolates would indicate. These findings are discussed with perspective toward understanding the impact of thermal stress on the composition of secondary organic matter within the Eagle Ford Shale and highlight the growing awareness that organic matter heterogeneity within petroliferous mudrocks extends down to the nanoscale regime.

show abstract

The Gulf of Mexico Sedimentary Basin

Snedden¹,

Galloway²

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Eagle Ford Group and associated Cenomanian–Turonian Strata, U.S. Gulf Coast, Texas, 2018

Cited by 23 publications

References 2 publications

Examining Water and Proppant Demand, and Produced Water Production, Associated with Petroleum Resource Development in the Eagle Ford Group, Texas

Examining Water and Proppant Demand, and Produced Water Production, Associated with Petroleum Resource Development in the Eagle Ford Group, Texas

Nanoscale Molecular Composition of Solid Bitumen from the Eagle Ford Group across a Natural Thermal Maturity Gradient

The Gulf of Mexico Sedimentary Basin

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About