Mid Term Essay

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

3. The actions, or inactions, of government impact children less than any other group in

A process for retrieving natural gas from 7,000 feet below the earth’s surface has caused environmental concerns. Hydrofracking has been around since the 40’s but wasn’t until the 90’s where technology allowed for a vertical drill to drill horizontally into shall deep below the surface creating several bores and accessing hundreds of acres of shale. Hydrofarcking comes with its controversy, some argue that it is contaminating water sources and creating environmental concerns, while others say there is no proof of this despite many studies.

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

The State Law Enforcement Officers primary responsibility is that of traffic enforcement of our state highways, which in California is the CHP, California Highway Patrol. They also have the responsibility to ensure the vehicles that travel our highways are meeting state safety

Saturation trends in the Pronghorn and the upper Three Forks (Figure 21), indicates that hydrocarbons are being occluded from the lower Bakken into the Three Forks, but not entirely. Oil saturation gradually decreases from the top of the Pronghorn to the base indicating less hydrocarbons are being pushed into the upper Three Forks. However, the oil saturation never reach 0% and only decreases to approximately 60 to 70 % water saturation. The oil saturation then gradually increases from the top of the Three Forks to the top of the first claystone. This trend is observed throughout all the wells within Painted Woods, independent to the thickness of the Pronghorn. Even though there is less volume of generated lower Bakken hydrocarbons, oil is still able to be transmitted through the Pronghorn across Painted Woods. However, the quantities transmitted are likely less compared to other

Oil and Gas exploration has been an ongoing project in the Raton Basin, but a quite unsuccessful one at best. The Raton Basin is primarily a flood plain paludal deposit which is not ordinarily an ideal unit to recover oil or gas from (Speer, 1976). The sandstones within the Raton are predominantly coarse grained, poorly sorted, fluvial sandstones which have been shown

Oil and gas are found in little pockets in the shale by fracturing theses pockets it causes the hydrocarbons to be released, Hence the name fracking. To keep open and widen cracks, sand and chemical treated water is pumped into the shale. A

After scientists have tested the oil and the rocks, oil companies will begin drilling in the wells and rock samples will be brought to the surface. After the scientists have studied the rock samples from above ground and are convinced that they have found the right type of rock, companies begin drilling production wells. “When the wells first hit the reservoir, some of the oil begins coming to the surface immediately” (“Fossil Energy: How Fossil Fuels Were Formed,” n.d.). However, with today’s technology, oil companies are able to install special equipment to help the oil from spurting hundreds and hundreds of feet from the ground.

The formation is located in western North Dakota, southern Saskatchewan, northeastern Montana, and southwestern Manitoba, and has a depth of approximately 130 feet to 12,000 feet deep. The upper and lower Bakken shale layers contain large amounts of organic-rich black mudstone. During the Lower Bakken Member deposition, an increase in the rate of siliciclastic sedimentation (quartz and orthoclase feldspar) caused more organic material to be preserved in bottom sediments. During Upper Bakken Member deposition, an increase in biological productivity in the water column resulted in more organic carbon reaching the bottom where it was subsequently preserved (Bustin & Smith, 1995). The middle layer is made up of mostly mudstone and sandstone. This layer can be tapped by both conventional and continuous oil

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.

Class II is the selection given by the EPA for wells that inject below the Underground Source of Drinking Water (USDW) and are consider deep wells, unlike Class V, that are shallow disposal wells such as septic tanks that dispose non-hazardous fluids underground. These salt water disposal wells are used to dispose the produced water from oil and gas extraction activities permanently. The produced water is also called brine. This produced water is extremely saturated with salt, has a high number of total dissolve solids, contains residuals from crude oil, and may contain other chemicals used during the production process. There are other injection activities in this area that inject produce water in the Birds Nest aquifer, which is the enhance recovery activity. The enhance recovery activity injects produced water in the same formation that the oil companies are extracting the oil and gas. These enhance recovery wells will not be used in this study since the water injected will stay in the formation temporary. The produced water from salt water disposal wells will stay in a different formation permanently and can pose a threat to the area and nearby aquifers. The average depth of the injection zones in the Birds Nest average from 3,000 feet below surface level to 10,000 feet below surface level. The average depth of the USDW in this area is 300 feet below surface level. If there is an aquifer that is used or will be used in the future for the purpose of drinking water, then the constructions of these wells need to be rigorously engineered to protect this source of drinking water. These injection wells contain two to three layers of cement to make sure there is no migration of the injected fluid. The permits for these well state that extensive logs and test needs to be done regularly to ensure the mechanical integrity of

Economically, operators of the gas field have an incentive to maintain fractures in the gas producing shale. Extending the fractures into a surrounding formation might allow saline fluids or brines to enter the induced fracture and flow into the gas producing portion of the shale, which could significantly hamper gas production. Even if hydraulically induced fractures extend into overlying formations, the possibility for fluids to leak upward into an aquifer is remote, unless those fractures are also connected to some other pathway,

Drilled by the Transocean Leader, the 6705/10-1 well reached a vertical depth of 3,775 meters below sea. The reservoir is located in Upper Cretaceous reservoir rocks, and found gas in rocks with good reservoir properties.

This report provides analysis of reservoir analysis by type of services, such as reservoir simulation & geomodeling, data acquisition & monitoring and reservoir sampling services that is used in onshore and