America’s Shale Natural Gas Production Is Taking Off — Sort Of

[thackney]

America’s Shale Natural Gas Production Is Taking Off — Sort Of
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-14/america-s-shale-natural-gas-production-is-taking-off-sort-of
August 14, 2017

America’s shale gas production is about to surge 12 percent. Sort of.

The Energy Department issued a report Monday estimating that the nation’s prolific shale formations will yield 59.4 billion cubic feet a day in September, a massive jump from the roughly 53 billion projected for August. The difference: The agency began including the more than 6 billion cubic feet a day of gas flowing out of the Anadarko basin of Oklahoma and Texas.

The addition of the Anadarko is testament to the flood of gas flowing out of shale formations known better for their oil riches. Almost half of the country’s shale gas is now being produced in crude plays, pulled out of oil wells as a byproduct. These supplies, known as associated gas, threaten to quash any meaningful recovery in an already-glutted market.

“This is again telling us why we are in a perpetual bear market in natty gas,” said Stephen Schork, president of Schork Group Inc., a consulting group in Villanova, Pennsylvania. “We are finding more and more gas. It’s giving the bears more ammo.”...

[thackney]

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Now that is one paper I agree with, the huge potential of unconventional gas.

Did you notice in article that it says 50% of current gas from unconventionals is associated gas?  Just a by-product in going after liquids.

All of those unconventionals that produce liquids have a gas leg that remains for the most part unexploited.

In fact, liquids is sometimes a curse when trying to go after gas in these formations, as it causes all sorts of production problems.

We ain't seen nothing yet when it comes to America's gas potential.

[thackney]

Now that is one paper I agree with, the huge potential of unconventional gas.

Did you notice in article that it says 50% of current gas from unconventionals is associated gas?  Just a by-product in going after liquids.

All of those unconventionals that produce liquids have a gas leg that remains for the most part unexploited.

In fact, liquids is sometimes a curse when trying to go after gas in these formations, as it causes all sorts of production problems.

We ain't seen nothing yet when it comes to America's gas potential.

Yes, I didn't not think it was that high already.  Not with the Marcellus being such a high percentage of our overall production.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Yes, I didn't not think it was that high already.  Not with the Marcellus being such a high percentage of our overall production.

It's a delicate balance in places like the Eagleford and the newly-exploited zones like the Bone Springs in the Permian. To extract maximum amount of liquids, one must either have an appreciable gas assist in pushing the reservoir oil out to the wellbore, or, in the case of liquid-rich gas formations, not too much of the heavier-ends in the reservoir gas so the formation does not get some nasty relative permeability effects near the wellbore.

Gas is required in all unconventionals(except for that pesky outlier the Bakken/3 Forks which befuddles my technical brain on how it can produce at such oil rates with so little gas - ask @Smokin Joe ), but not too much.

When the gloves come off and just gas is targeted, there will be absolutely huge fairways of dry gas exploited at high gas rates.

[Smokin Joe]

It's a delicate balance in places like the Eagleford and the newly-exploited zones like the Bone Springs in the Permian. To extract maximum amount of liquids, one must either have an appreciable gas assist in pushing the reservoir oil out to the wellbore, or, in the case of liquid-rich gas formations, not too much of the heavier-ends in the reservoir gas so the formation does not get some nasty relative permeability effects near the wellbore.

Gas is required in all unconventionals(except for that pesky outlier the Bakken/3 Forks which befuddles my technical brain on how it can produce at such oil rates with so little gas - ask @Smokin Joe ), but not too much.

When the gloves come off and just gas is targeted, there will be absolutely huge fairways of dry gas exploited at high gas rates.

Other formations in the Williston Basin show signs of a hydrodynamic from SE to NW, it may be that is present in the Bakken/Three Forks as well.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Other formations in the Williston Basin show signs of a hydrodynamic from SE to NW, it may be that is present in the Bakken/Three Forks as well.

What is that hydrodynamic you mentioned and what is its significance?

[Smokin Joe]

What is that hydrodynamic you mentioned and what is its significance?

Natural percolation of water from the SE to NW, which (in some formations) provides a slight water drive on closed structures, and even distorts oil pools around a structure. At the same time, that can provide some pressure maintenance in the reservoir as well.
In some instances, salt layers in the rock (there are several widespread evaporite beds of significance in the Williston Basin--in the Spearfish, Charles, Prairie, Interlake, and Ashern Formations to name a few) will be dissolved, and the collapse of overlying sediments can create a trap for oil. The Northeast corner of the Basin is an angular unconformity, and the water that makes it that far can exit into shallower formations.
Although the amount of water present in the Bakken/Three Forks varies, that dynamic may be providing an assist in some instances by pushing oil and gas toward the wellbore. In other cases where laterals got 'more wet' by going into areas of the formation with higher water saturation, the 'hills and valleys' created by the variation in depth of the lateral create situations in the wellbore where water causes production problems, creating water flows in the wellbore contrary to the flow of oil and gas out of the well.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Natural percolation of water from the SE to NW, which (in some formations) provides a slight water drive on closed structures, and even distorts oil pools around a structure. At the same time, that can provide some pressure maintenance in the reservoir as well.
In some instances, salt layers in the rock (there are several widespread evaporite beds of significance in the Williston Basin--in the Spearfish, Charles, Prairie, Interlake, and Ashern Formations to name a few) will be dissolved, and the collapse of overlying sediments can create a trap for oil. The Northeast corner of the Basin is an angular unconformity, and the water that makes it that far can exit into shallower formations.
Although the amount of water present in the Bakken/Three Forks varies, that dynamic may be providing an assist in some instances by pushing oil and gas toward the wellbore. In other cases where laterals got 'more wet' by going into areas of the formation with higher water saturation, the 'hills and valleys' created by the variation in depth of the lateral create situations in the wellbore where water causes production problems, creating water flows in the wellbore contrary to the flow of oil and gas out of the well.

I never noticed any water drive in any of the Bakken areas I worked.  In fact, the Bakken formation was way overpressured, so having a water drive would have been strange in such a closed system.

[Smokin Joe]

I never noticed any water drive in any of the Bakken areas I worked.  In fact, the Bakken formation was way overpressured, so having a water drive would have been strange in such a closed system.

Not present in the deep basin as far as I know. I was thinking of Elm Coulee, where there is only one shale present, for the most part, too. And yes, it is ever overpressured, with rare exception. (There is a block north and west of Tioga which just didn't get charged up as well as elsewhere.)