Analysis : Eagle Ford Shale

Generally, shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock created from silt and clay-size mineral particles with properties to substance we commonly call “mud”. In geological term, shale is categorized as one of the mudstones. Properties of shale is rather distinguishing as it is made up of many thin layers which readily splits into thin pieces of layers. Shale can be used for numerous application based on the substance which exist in the shale formation. Most shale can be crushed and mixed with water to create clays for molding into object or bricks for houses. Some shale can even create cement by combining with limestone. For this paper, we only focus on one specific shale category which is oil shale.

Shale is found in many colors but those that are very dark or black contain oil and gas. Conventional drillers look for pools of oil and gas above shale rock. “The oil and natural gas migrated out of the shale and upwards through the sediment mass because of their low density. The oil and gas were often trapped within the pore spaces of an overlying rock unit such as sandstone. These types of oil and gas deposits are known as "conventional reservoirs" because the fluids can easily flow through the pores of the rock and into the extraction well”. (Geology.com King) Conventional drilling into shale has declined because those conventional supplies are disappearing and drilling companies have known this for quite some time. They also know that more oil and gas can be extracted. Geology.com’s Hobart King provides this insight. “Although drilling can extract large amounts of oil and natural gas from the reservoir rock, much of it remains trapped within the shale. This oil and gas is very difficult to remove because it is trapped within tiny pore spaces or adsorbed onto clay mineral particles that make-up the shale. In the late 1990s natural gas drilling companies developed new methods for liberating oil and natural gas that is trapped within the tiny pore spaces of shale. This discovery was significant because it unlocked some of the largest natural gas deposits in the world” (King Geology.com). The site goes on to provide this outlook for fracking oil

The well tested in this project is located in the city of Brighton in Weld County, CO. Well SHABLE AB11-04P which is operated by Halliburton is one of the many wells in the Wattenberg field. Wattenberg field is a low permeability (“tight”) basin center gas field (Highley 12).Based from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in 1999, the Wattenberg field has approximately produced 1.75 TCFG, 76.4 MMBO, and 15.7 MMBW from all of the formation above. The primary source of hydrocarbon production in the Wattenberg field comes from the Muddy (“J”) Sandstone formation which currently has 1,900 producing wells. The Wattenberg formation also has a potential biogenic gas reserves for coalbed methane (CBM) production at the Laramie formation

Texas has always been proud of their heritage and their industry. The boost in the economy is much appreciated by Texas, and our government appears to be hushed by the counter weights and balances where money appears to overpower the concern of environmental harm. Two articles that were reviewed gave the opportunity to enlightened Texans about how production appears to be affecting air quality and water and in turn is hurting Texans’ health. Through facts presented, it is apparent that Texas government must take measures to improve the regulatory agencies so that the health of Texans is secure. I am personally appalled by the facts stated in the articles, and reform is definitely required.

The Marcellus Shale rock formation harbors the largest natural gas reserve that runs from New York to Tennessee. (Federman 2010 p.35) The only way to extract the natural gas is to use the process of hydrofracking. The process of hydrofracking uses a mixture of water, sand and chemicals to drill and fracture the Marcellus Shale to extract the natural gas. Clean water is used from local aquifers to produce the water mixture called “slurry” which is made up of 99% clean water (Rush 2010 p.28). The slurry additives are described in the journal article “In the Wake of the Shale Revolution: A Primer on Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Chemical Disclosure” as, 3

Based off of MICP data collected from core (Figure 19), the Pronghorn siltstone has a permeability on par with the upper and lower Bakken shales. The lack of permeability is supported by lithological analysis indicating a clay content of up to 50 % (Figure 20) across the Painted Woods asset. The low permeability and high clay content shows that the Pronghorn does have the potential to occlude primary migration of hydrocarbons from the lower Bakken shale into the underlying upper Three Forks. However, this only has a minimal effect on the overall potential of the upper Three Forks as a whole.

For more than sixty years, oil and gas companies have been fracturing shale rock far below the earth’s surface in order to release pockets of natural gas. The extraction of shale gas from wells dates back to 1821; but the revolutionary procedure of hydraulic fracturing—injecting pressurized fluid into shale rock to create fissures—was commercialized in the 1950s. New drilling techniques, created in the 1970s, reach previously inaccessible shale gas by allowing the use of horizontal piping within the wells. While the United States is currently dependent on foreign countries for natural resources, a hope for independence has led companies to further explore hydraulic fracturing, redefining the way that natural resources are

In 2000, shale beds where the number one source of America’s constant need for gas. Most of that production increase has come about to the growing need of hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking”, which is a process used to release oil or gas from underground formations that are otherwise too hard to mine with other tools. Over the past few years, advances in fracking technology have made huge reserves of natural gas in America economically recoverable. According to the Energy Information Administration, shale gas plays, or fields, in the United States, most notably the Marcellus, in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York, and the Barnett, in Texas, are said to contain enough natural gas to give power to the country for a hundred and ten years. With the everlasting specter of energy independence, some have argued that such efforts to recover natural gas need to be expanded. Activists concerned with fracking’s potential environmental hazards view the new process as a serious threat to our environment. There are many different opinions on wether or not fracking is a safe way to gain our gasoline, and to meet the growing demands of gasoline around the world. The process of fracking creates cracks that come from wells into oil and gas formations by pumping highly pressurized fluids, ceramic beads, sand, and a mixture of chemicals, into the gas formation. As this fluid holds the underground fissures open, oil and gas fly up the well to the surface where they are

The process of the collection of an underground fluid would not be possible without the use of hydraulic fracturing. In the Shale reserves, located about 5,000 feet underground, suffer an extremely low permeability rate. Permeability is the measure of how well a fluid flows through an absorbent material at the depth, and within such nonporous rock, the ability of fluids to travel to the well is greatly limited. Fracturing increases the area of the fluid that is exposed to porous materials and thus greatly increases production. The method of fracturing utilizes a few key components which allow for an economical extraction of resources.

What is Marcellus Shale? It is a marine sedimentary rock buried thousands of feet beneath the earths surfaces. Sedimentary rock is one of the three main rock groups and is formed in four main ways: by the deposition of the weathered remains of other rocks; by the accumulation and the consolidation of sediments; by the deposition of the results of biogenic activity; and by precipitation from solution. Marcellus Shale is found throughout the Allegheny Plateau region of the northern Appalachian basin of North America. It stretches from upstate New York south through Pennsylvania to West Virginia and west to parts of Ohio. Marcellus shale was named after a town in upstate New York, the rock itself is millions of years old, formed from mud and other natural materials. Its made up of the formation of black shale that may contain lime stone beds and concentrations of iron pyrite and siderite. The Sedimentary beds and structure is very well developed. Lighter colored shales in the upper portion of the formation tend to split into small thin edged fragments after exposure. The fragments may have and leave rust stains from exposure of pyrite to air, and tiny gypsum crystals from the reaction between both of the fragments pyrite and the limestone particles. Fresh exposures of the pyriteiferous shale may develop the secondary mineralization of orange limonite and the pale yellow efflorescence or bloom of sulfur, associated with acid

Natural gas began to be extracted from the Marcellus shale formation in the mid-2000s’, and now well pads and their associated infrastructures are now well known fixtures in the Appalachian Mountain regions. Marcellus Shale is an organically rich black shale which is currently being explored by drilling as a source of natural gas. The region in question encompasses most of the relatively uninhabited Appalachian basin, which is located within the Appalachian mountain range. The basin is comprised of sedimentary rocks which stretch from Ontario, Canada all the way down through New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, and New Jersey.

One of the most highly debated topics in the gas industry is hydraulic fracking. News about it is on the radio, tv and all over the internet. The truth about hydraulic fracking can be hard to find but is imperative to know the truth. The U.S Energy Information Administration estimates that the United States has 2,119 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas. They predict that 60% of this gas is “unconventional gas” that is stored in low permeability formations such as shale, coalbeds, and tight sands (Jackson, 2011).

Oil was discovered in this area in 1951, but the trick was extracting it. Then, not long ago, came a marriage of two techniques—one older, one newer. The older one was “hy - draulic fracturing,” or “fracking,” for short. This is the method by which oil or natural gas is forced from rock. The newer technique was horizontal

Over one and a half million people have watched the video where the family holds a match under their faucet claiming that the water was polluted with methane due to the local fracking operation yet not all 1.8 million people have investigated fracking and if it is a benefit or danger. But some industry professionals have and provided their insight into the fracking process. Professionals such as Fred Dews of the Brookings Institute who argues that there are numerous economic benefits to fracking and that is positively effects more people than you’d think while Chemical Engineer Ross Topliff of Tops Engineering believes that the potential health issues outweigh any benefits that come with the process but the fact remains that the dangers are

The Eagle Ford Shale (EFS) is a hydrocarbon producing formation in South Texas, where it can be seen on the surface as clay soil, with depths ranging from 4,000 ft to 12,000 ft. It has an approximate extension of 21,000 km2 (Treadgold: 2011, Figure 6-2) and covers more than 24 counties according to the Rail Road Commission (RRC). It is part of the Upper Cretaceous System which trends across the state from the Mexican border in Southwest Texas into East Texas (Bownman: 2011). Basic patterns of regional Cretaceous structure of the EFS area were set by Triassic and Jurassic tectonism associated with the opening of the Gulf of Mexico (Figure 6-1, Table 3).