Characterization of Tertiary Shales for Shale Gas Potential in the Balingian Basin, East Malaysia

Rosmalia D. Nugraheni, Sum W. Chow, Abd. Rahman Abdul Hadi, and Abd. Talib Jasmi
Department of Petroleum Geoscience, Faculty of Geoscience and Petroleum Engineering,
University of Technology PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Tronoh, Perak Darul Ridzuan, 31750, Malaysia
[email protected]

Production of petroleum in the existing major oil fields has declined in recent decades, whereas gas demand has going to increase significantly. To supplement the supply of gas, exploration has been diverted to unconventional source, such as shale gas. Shale gas presents as typical unconventional reservoir which refers to trapped of natural gas in extremely fine grained, organic rich shale unit, with an average permeability less than 0.1mD and porosity of 4 to 12 %. This research project is aimed at characterizing shale units from Tertiary shales of Balingian and Belaga Formations in the Balingian Basin, Sarawak, Malaysia. This shale unit is underlain by carbonaceous shale which may potentially be tapped. Research is now being conducted in this area by applying multi-scale characterization from sub-regional, outcrop, sample and pore scale. Field geological investigation will be carried out as shale characterization in sub-regional to outcrop scale. Integration of geochemical, geological and petrophysical analyses in laboratory are carried out to characterize from sample to pore scale. Total Organic Carbon and Rock Eval Pyrolisis studies will reveal the maturity of the shale. Hence, an integration of petrography, XRD and SEM studies will reveal the correlation between texture, mineralogical composition, micro and macro-pores distribution and their geometry. Those methods are combined with additional porosimetry measurement. Those of preliminary data has to be used and integrated in order to establish a specifically representative shale characters, which will bring a new perspective on one of the unconventional reservoir in Malaysia in terms of shale gas prospect.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90183©2013 AAPG Foundation 2013 Grants-in-Aid Projects