Shale Gas

The Shale Gas is designed for a dry to near dry gas reservoir. The first objective is to estimate the quality and quantity
of resource in place, help you take decisions and feed the necessary data to any reservoir modeling efforts. If high
liquid to gas ratio fluids are expected, the shale condensate or shale oil module should be used accordingly.

Input variables

Name Unit Description Mandatory/Optional

Depth ft Measured Depth Mandatory

Bulk Density g/cc Bulk Density log Mandatory

Effective Porosity v/v Effective Porosity Mandatory

Effective Water Saturation v/v Effective Water Saturation Mandatory

Weight Total Organic Carbon Wt/wt Total organic carbon weight fraction Mandatory

Volume Illite v/v Illite volume fraction Optional

Volume Chlorite v/v Chlorite volume fraction Optional

Volume Montmorillonite v/v Montmorillonite volume fraction Optional

Volume Additional Clay 1 v/v Additional clay volume fraction Optional

Volume Additional Clay 2 v/v Additional clay 2 volume fraction Optional

Volume Bound Water in Flushed Zone v/v Volume of Bound water Mandatory

Apparent Grain Density g/cc Apparent grain density Mandatory

Temperature degF Temperature Mandatory

Pressure Psi Pressure Mandatory

Intrinsic Permeability mD Intrinsic Permeability Optional

Water Permeability mD Water Permeability Optional

Gas Permeability mD Gas Permeability Optional

Parameters
Parameters for Langmuir Isotherm and Ambrose Parameters tab

Default
Name Unit Description
value

15 shale names are provided in this list (Haynesville, Caney, Woodford,

Fayetville, Barnett, Marcellus, Rhinestreet, New Albany, Huron, Lower
Huron Baxter, Floyd, Upper EagleFord, Lower Eagleford and Utica). User
Shale Name Unitless
Selecting any shale name automatically uses the known Langmuir Input
Isotherm Parameters of that shale. When selecting user input, you can
input your own Langmuir Parameters.

With this option, the cumulated curves begin from 0 at the start of each
Reset Cumms Unitless Yes
zone or continue cumulating from the previous zone.

Langmuir Total Total organic carbon content of the sample that was used in the
wt/wt 0.0559
Organic Carbon Langmuir Isotherm Experiment

Langmuir
degF Temperature at which Langmuir Isotherm Experiment was carried out 100
Temperature

Langmuir
scf/ft3 Volume of gas adsorbed at infinite pressure 100
Volume

Langmuir
Psi Pressure at which half the Langmuir volume is adsorbed 500
Pressure

Adsorbed Gas
g/cc Density of Adsorbed Gas at reservoir conditions 0.4
Density

Free Gas
g/cc Density of gas in free space at reservoir conditions 0.115
Density

Gas Gravity Unitless User input gas gravity at reservoir conditions 0.57

Parameters for Permeability tab

Default
Name Unit Description
value

This is a multiplier on the effective porosity to estimate permeability from a

Gain Unitless linear correlation of permeability versus porosity. Applicable only in shale 0.0108
zones.

This is the y intercept in the permeability versus porosity linear relationship.

Offset Unitless -0.000256
Applicable only in shale zones.

This is a multiplier applied to intrinsic perm, water perm and hydrocarbon

Multiplier Unitless 0.1
perm. Applicable only in non-shale intervals.
Parameters for Cutoffs for reservoir and Pay Flags tab

Default
Name Unit Description
value

Minimum Gas Filled Minimum fractional volume cutoff for gas filled porosity. Used for
v/v 0.02
Porosity the classification of Reservoir Flag.

Minimum fractional porosity cutoff. Used for the classification of

Minimum Porosity v/v 0.04
Pay Flag.

Maximum fractional porosity cutoff. Used for the classification of

Maximum Porosity v/v 0.12
Pay Flag.

Minimum total organic carbon weight fraction cutoff. Used for the
Minimum TOC w/w 0.02
classification of Pay Flag.

Minimum Minimum shale Permeability cutoff. Used for the classification of

mD 0.0001
Permeability Pay Flag.

Maximum water saturation cutoff. Used for the classification of

Maximum Saturation v/v 0.45
Pay Flag.

Parameters for Cutoffs for Digits tab

Default
Name Unit Description
value

Yes/No. This option controls whether the DATA outputs are output
Allow Digits v/v Yes
from the module or not.

Maximum water saturation cutoff for the outputs DATA_SW and

Saturation Cutoff v/v 0.9
DATA_SHYD.

Porosity Cutoff v/v Minimum porosity cutoff for the output DATA_PHI and DATA_VGAS. 0.03

Permeability
mD Minimum permeability cutoff for the output DATA_PERM. 1
Cutoff

TOC Cutoff w/w Minimum TOC cutoff for the output DATA_TOC. 0.01

Outputs

Name Unit Description

FreeGIP Scf/ton Free gas in place per ton of rock

AdsorbedGIP Scf/ton Adsorbed gas in place per ton of rock

GIP Scf/ton Total gas in place per ton of rock (sum of Free and Adsorbed GIP)

Shale Intrinsic Permeability (obtained from a permeability porosity

KINT_SHALE mD
relationship)

KINT_SPLICE mD Spliced permeability curve between the shale and non-shale intervals

VGAS_ELAN Ft3/ft3 Total volume of gas per volume of rock

RHGA_Wet g/cc Wet grain density

DATA_SW % Water Saturation that clears the cutoff for digits

DATA_SHYD % Hydrocarbon saturation that clears the cutoff for digits

DATA_PHI % Porosity that clears the cutoff for digits

DATA_TOC % TOC that clears the cutoff for digits

DATA_PERM nD Permeability that clears the cutoff for digits

DATA_VGAS % Total volume of gas that clears the cutoff for digits

KGAS mD Gas Permeability in non-shale intervals (calibrated)

KINT mD Intrinsic Permeability in non-shale intervals (calibrated)

KWTR mD Water Permeability in non-shale intervals (calibrated)

Fractional Volume of adsorbed gas at reservoir conditions per volume of

VGAS_ADSORB_AMB ft3/ft3
rock (after applying Ambrose correction)

Fractional volume of free gas at reservoirs conditions per volume of rock

VGAS_FREE_AMB ft3/ft3
(after applying Ambrose correction)

AmbroseFreeGIP scf/ton Free scf Gas in place (after applying Ambrose correction) per ton of rock

AmbroseGIP scf/ton Total scf gas in place per ton of rock (after applying Ambrose correction)

Free pore volume per volume of rock (after removing the Ambrose
PIGN_AMB v/v
corrected adsorbed gas volume)

Water saturation in free pore volume (after removing the Ambrose

SUWI_AMB v/v
corrected adsorbed gas volume)
 Shale Permeability estimated as a function of Free pore volume per volume
KINT_AMB_SHALE mD
of rock (after removing the Ambrose corrected adsorbed gas volume)

Intrinsic Permeability in non-shale intervals (calibrated against free

KINT_AMB_SPLICE mD
ambrose corrected porosity)

Z_COMP_FACTOR unitless Compressibility factor of the gas

RES_FLAG unitless Reservoir Interval Flag that clears the minimum gas filled porosity cutoff

Pay Interval Flag that clearns the minimum porosity, TOC, Permeability and
PAY_FLAG unitless
maximum water saturation cutoffs

APP_THICK_RES Ft Reservoir thickness

APP_THICK_PAY Ft Pay thickness

CumGIP BCF/section Cumulative total gas in place (before Ambrose correction)

CumAdsorbGIP BCF/section Cumulative adsorbed gas in place

CumFreeGIP BCF/section Cumulative free gas in place (before Ambrose correction)

CumAmbroseFreeGIP BCF/section Cumulative Free gas in place (after Ambrose correction)

CumAmbroseGIP BCF/section Cumulative Total Gas in place (After Ambrose correction)

Notes:
 The summation file is calculated per shale name and not per zone
 The summation file is saved in the Various folder of the Techlog project

Running Shale gas computation

1. Click the Unconventionals tab> Shale Advisor group > Shale gas.
2. In the Shale Gas data selection window, choose the input logs (family, alias or variable).
The inputs in white boxes are compulsory inputs and inputs in gray boxes are optional inputs.
3. Click Create.
4. Specify the parameters in each tab and click Run.

Petrophysical model

Gas in shale reservoirs is present in free and adsorbed state. The free gas is present in the pore network while the
sorbed gas is physically sorbed on to the surface of organic carbon.

Adsorbed gas content using Langmuir isotherm

At reservoir conditions, the gas sorbed on to the surface of kerogen is in equilibrium with the free gas. The Langmuir
isotherm was developed to describe this state of equilibrium at specific conditions. It can be expressed as:

Free gas content with logs

The effective porosity and effective gas saturation (free of clay bound water) are used to compute Gas Filled Pore
Volume (scf/ton) at standard temperature and pressure (60 degF and 14.7 psi).
VGAS = PIGN * (1 – SUWI)

GIP = AdsorbedGIP + FreeGIP

Ambrose correction

The free gas porosity is computed as:

PIGN AMB = PIGN – VGAS Adsorbed AMB
Where:
PIGN = Input effective porosity (v/v)

Total gas in place Ambrose corrected

AmbroseGIP = AmbroseFreeGIP + AdsorbedGIP

The Ambrose corrected effective water saturation is the saturation of the free space in the reservoir.

Permeability computation

Some core labs provide a wet grain density in shales which includes the clay bound water. To calibrate the log grain
shale density to this output, a wet grain shale density is computed. This requires information on clay bound water from
NMR or other source.
Since:
Total Volume = 1 = (Non-ClayMatrixVol + PIGN) + (DryClayVol + VXBW)
then:
Shale Volume wet = 1 – (Non-ClayMatrixVol + PIGN)
Where:
 Shale Volume wet = Dry Clay volume + Clay bound water
 PIGN = Total Porosity minus clay bound water.
This Effective porosity is devoid of clay bound water, but it does include capillary bound water.
  PIGN = PIGT - VXBW
where:
PIGT = PHIT – PARA_VOL – ISOL_VOL
 PARA_VOL = parallel porosity
 ISOL_VOL = isolated porosity
 VXBW = Clay bound water
RHGA = Rock Density / Rock Volume
Where:
 Rock Density is computed as the sum of the weight percents of all minerals and dry grain density.
For example, if a model contains minerals Illite & Quartz:
rock density = (Vol Illite * ρIllite-dry) + (Vol Quartz * ρQuartz-dry)
 Rock Volume = 1 - PHIT

References

 Lewis R., Ingraham D., Pearcy M., Williamson J., Sawyer W., Frantz J., 2004, New Evaluation
Techniques for Gas Shale Reservoirs, Reservoir Symposium
 Ambrose, R.J. and Hartman, R.C. and Campos, M.D. and Akkutlu I.Y. and Sondergeld, C.H.,
2010, New Pore-Scale Considerations for Shale Gas in Place Calculations, SPE-131772, paper
presented at SPE Unconventional Gas Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Feb 23-25
See Also:
Useful Measurements for Shale Advisor

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