--> Abstract: Developing a New Gas Resource in the Heart of the Northeastern U.S. Market: New York’S Utica Shale Play, by John P. Martin, Richard Nyahay, James Leone, and Langhorne B. Smith; #90078 (2008)

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Developing a New Gas Resource in the Heart of the Northeastern U.S. Market: New York’S Utica Shale Play

John P. Martin1, Richard Nyahay2, James Leone2, and Langhorne B. Smith2
1NYSERDA, Albany, NY
2New York State Museum, Albany, NY

After significant research, industry is now investing in leasing, exploratory drilling and modern completion methods for the Utica Shale. When developed, this play will represent the easternmost natural gas field in the USA. The prospective fairway includes 17 counties bounded by the Hudson River, the Finger Lakes, the Mohawk Valley and the Pennsylvania border. The Utica is a massive, fossiliferous, organic-rich, thermally-mature black to gray-black shale deposited in a subsiding trough that generally trended north-south. Source rock for the organic-rich black shale was supplied from the eroding Taconic highlands to the east. As the deep marine trough filled, the deposition of the lower members of the group onlapped westward over the carbonate platform. The Dolgeville, interpreted as a slope facies peripheral to the Trenton platform, interfingers with the basal Flat Creek black shale member. The Flat Creek member thickens considerably in the eastern half of New York whereas the uppermost Indian Castle member spreads widely across the Appalachian Basin. The exploration fairway has been defined through an analysis of cuttings and cores defining unit properties, Rock-Eval parameters S2, Tmax, HI (Hydrogen Index), and TR (Transformation Ratio). Current work shows that the Utica has TOC values between 1.5 and 3 and with higher original TOC. Fairways have been defined using a TR of 0.95. S2 values are low, suggesting that little live carbon remains and most of the gas that could be generated has been adsorbed into the matrix. Current drilling activity to date has concentrated on the shallower northern areas but technical evidence supports much deeper drilling depths. Hydraulic fracture designs include the use of acid to take advantage of the high calcite component. Since this play is within the eastern gas market, producers can expect a sales price premium over NYMEX.

 

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90078©2008 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas