Dr. David Gray - CSEG Lecture: An Unconventional View of Geoscience

Résumé / Abstract

Shale oil and gas production and “fracking” are with us to stay. We geoscientists need to understand how we can contribute to the “shale revolution.” The revenue from a good shale well allows the operator to rapidly recover the costs of drilling, completing, and fracking the well because of the high initial production. After that, production is nearly pure profit. By comparison, the initial investment in conventional wells takes much longer to recover. The question facing geoscientists is how can geoscience make contributions to shale production when operators believe that producing from shale is a “manufacturing process”? In fact, only about half of the fracs deliver significant hydrocarbons. Therefore, the answer lies in the use of geomechanics to optimize fracking opportunities. In this context, seismic should be thought of as an in-situ geomechanical test run over the entire shale reservoir before the majority of wells are drilled. Therefore, from seismic, estimates can be made of how much energy is required to frac the rock and how it will frac. If done prior to drilling or completions, seismic provides significant opportunities to improve the profitability of shale wells. This talk will focus on those opportunities and how to unearth them.