PHYSICAL PROPERTY ANALYSIS OF EAGLE FORD SHALE:A PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT

Discoveries of oil and gas windows of the Eagle Ford ShaleFormation in Texas, have led to a surge of over 4000 operational permits since 2010. Despite advancements in shale analysis, the proprietary natures of core samples have greatly prevented a large amount of data from public exposure. This study focuses on analyzing the physicalproperties of distinct core samples from the Eagle Ford Shale formation, and then determining whether those properties vary with respect to geography and geologicalenvironment. Utilizing a BET Nitrogen Gas adsorption instrument, pore size distribution and adsorption/desorption data are able to provide porosity and pore volume analysis.Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) imaging of pore structures provides reinforcing analysis to the permeability data from the Probe Permeameter instrument. Preliminaryobservations found correlations between porosity and pore size distribution. The pore size distribution measurements suggest relationships between pore connectivity and porosity for each core sample. The permeability data was inconclusive due to lack of instrument sensitivity. Future work with mercury injection analysis is required in order to obtain a greater spectrum of measurements that are limited by the nitrogen gas adsorption method. Such additionmeasurements are necessary in order to associate observations with shale hydrocarbon window characteristics.