Challenges to Black Oil Production from Shales
Harry Dembicki Jr.
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Geological Technology Group, P.O. Box 1330, Houston, TX 77251-1330 USA
Our understanding of unconventional play types, such as shale gas and shale oil, is still evolving. While scientific and engineering investigations into conventional petroleum exploration and development have been conducted for over 100 years, the study of the concepts and methods for unconventional petroleum has been pursued in earnest for only about 15 years. And most of this effort has been directed toward understanding shale gas systems.
As economic drivers, such as commodity prices, make liquids-rich plays more desirable, extra efforts are being made attempting to extract black oil from shales with limited success. This does not include the so called hybrid systems or source rock/reservoir sandwiches, such as the Bakken and Niobrara plays, where horizontal drilling allows us to exploit formerly poor reservoir rocks that are in direct contact with source rocks. Instead, the focus here is on getting black oil directly out of a shale.
Can we get black oil to flow from a shale in the oil window at commercial rate? To answer this question, we must examine whether black oil can escape from shales, under what conditions might this occur, and whether commercial flow rates are possible/probable. To address these issues, we will need to review what is meant by black oil, the oil window, and the essential elements of oil production to see how these apply to shales and examine what are the main obstacles to potential success. And finally, the conditions for the best chance for liquids production in shale plays will be discussed.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90186 © AAPG Geoscience Technology Workshop, Hydrocarbon Charge Considerations in Liquid-Rich Unconventional Petroleum Systems, November 5, 2013, Vancouver, BC, Canada