STORAGE AND OUTPUT FLOW FROM SHALE AND TIGHT GAS RESERVOIRS

Crossplots of porosity vs. permeability from various North American basins show that there is a continuum between conventional, tight and shale gas reservoirs. This is significant as some of the key issues, particularly in shale and tight gas reservoirs, are having good estimates of storage and flow capacity. The crossplots include data from the Fayettville, Barnett, Ohio and Marcellus shales in the United States; Horn River and soft shales in Canada, tight gas Nikanassin formation in Canada and several conventional North American gas reservoirs. The data used in the crossplots have been obtained from plugs, crushed samples and drill cuttings. The results permit integration of the storage and potential gas deliverability for determining flow units and other important characteristics such as brittleness and/or ductility, hydraulic fracturing alternatives, effect of water saturation and mud filtrate; and differentiation between viscous and diffusion dominated flow. Examples of simulation at the pore throat level, from which it is possible to estimate petrophysical, rock‑fluid interaction and rock mechanics properties, are presented The storage and flow capacity in the case of stacked layers, or lateral variations of conventional, tight and shale gas formations, are discussed in detail. The data suggest that permeability determinations from crushed shale samples might be pessimistic as they do not take into account the possible presence of microfractures and pores in organic matter within shale matrix. It is concluded that crossplots of porosity vs. permeability are very powerful for distinguishing and evaluating storage and flow capacities of conventional, tight and shale gas reservoirs. The concept of flow units in shales should prove powerful in future simulation work.