Flow model predicts behaviour of shale gas reservoirs

The team will field test the newly developed ‘quad porosity model’ in the next few months at an exploratory shale gas site.

‘The challenge for the team at the outset was to understand shale gas reservoirs in order to develop a predictive tool for better forecasting and economics,’ said project lead Deepak Devegowda of the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering at Oklahoma. ‘Shale gas reservoirs are complex systems, unlike conventional reservoirs.’

The key factor influencing the storage and transport of fluids in shale gas reservoirs is the inorganic and organic pore spaces in the rock.

Standard equations used to describe gas transport cannot be applied to the small pores in the organic material where a significant portion of the gas is stored. The research team has shown permeability enhancement effects of up to two orders of magnitude in very small pores and this, in part, explains how gas is produced from these extremely tight formations.