Publication Name: PESA News
Authors: Ken Ratcliffe and Milly Wright, Chemostrat; Dave Spain, BP USA
Publication Issue: 116
Date Published: February 2012
Number of Pages: 5
Abstract:
Using Elemental Data To Understand Shale Resource Plays
Shales are an important hydrocarbon resource; yet understanding them as reservoirs remains problematic. Their fine-grained, organic-rich yet superficially homogenous character make the application of traditional reservoir characterisation methods impractical or impossible. Increasingly, in the North American shale plays, inorganic geochemical data are being used as a one-stop method for understanding shale reservoirs. For decades, elemental data have been used to help solve stratigraphic problems, i.e. definition of chemostratigraphic frameworks. However, the same dataset acquired for chemostratigraphic studies can be used to model shale mineralogy, model TOC levels, determine paleoredox conditions, identify zones of biogenic silica in shales and provide information about transgressive-regressive cycles