Shale Gas Exploration and Production

Shale gas is natural gas from shale formations which acts as both the source and the reservoir for the natural gas. Each Shale gas reservoir has unique characteristics. Shale has low matrix permeability, so gas production in commercial quantities requires fractures to provide permeability . For a given matrix permeability and pressure, gas production are determined by the number and complexity of fractures created, their effective conductivity, and the ability to effectively reduce the pressure throughout the fracture network to initiate gas production. Understanding the relationship between fracture complexity, fracture conductivity, matrix permeability, and gas recovery is a fundamental challenge of shale-gas development. Shale gas reservoirs almost always have two different storage volumes(dual porosity) for hydrocarbons, the rock matrix and the natural fractures .Because of the plastic nature of shale formations, these natural fractures are generally closed due to the pressure of the overburden rock. Consequently, their very low, matrix permeability, usually on the order of hundreds of nanoDarcies (nD), makes unstimulated, conventional production impossible. Almost every well in a shale gas reservoir must be hydraulically stimulated (fractured) to achieve economical production. These hydraulic fracture treatments are believed to reactivate and reconnect the natural fracture matrix .