Characterization of Continental Shale Gas with Integrated Geoscience-Engineering Approach

Marine shale gas plays have been well developed worldwide; however, continental shale plays have been untapped until recently. Globally, there are no or few successes for continental shale gas development, although marine shale gas has been commercially exploited worldwide for decades. Ordos Basin, China is a rich continental shale gas play in Mesozoic and Paleozoic target zones. The proven resource is about 1600×108m3 (5.6 Tcf). The first geoengineering project for continental shale gas globally was conducted in this play in China. The paper presents a case study that illustrates the challenges of a lacustrine shale gas well from integrated study to fracturing and well testing. Although an integrated geoscience-engineering workflow is used in the study, only results from drilling and logging are presented in the paper. Discussions and recommendations for future exploitation are presented. The deep or semi-deep lacustrine deposits in the Triassic Yanchang formation, Ordos basin is the interval of interest in the study. The study area is in the southeastern part of Ordos basin, China, and the area is characterized by a single westerly dipping monocline with undeveloped faults . The interpretation of the seismic data showed no obvious faults. However, natural fractures were interpreted with ant tracking analysis, and these may influence reservoir and completion quality.