Electron Microscopy of Shale Hydrocarbon Reservoirs

307 Pages·2013·386.504 MB·English

by  Wayne K. Camp, Elizabeth Diaz, Barry Wawak

Electron Microscopy of
Shale Hydrocarbon Reservoirs
Memoir 102
Edited by
Wayne K. Camp, Elizabeth Diaz, and Barry Wawak
Published by
The American Association of Petroleum Geologists
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Copyright © 2013
By the American Association of Petroleum Geologists
All Rights Reserved
ISBN13: 978-0-89181-383-5
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AAPG Editor: Michael L. Sweet
AAPG Geoscience Director: James B. Blankenship
COVER: Pseudocolor secondary electron SEM image from Ar-ion milled surface illustrating porosity develop-
ment within organic matter from Eagle Ford Shale, La Salle County, Texas. Orange = calcareous coocolith frag-
ments, blue = organic matter, black=pores, white=pyrite framboid. White rims surrounding many of the larger
pores and parallel white lines are image artifacts. Image courtesy Ingrain, Inc.
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The American Association of Petroleum Geologists
Elected Editor
Michael L. Sweet, Houston, Texas
Geosciences Director
James B. Blankenship, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Books Editorial Committee
Chief Books Editor and Publications Committee Chair
Colin P. North, Aberdeen, Scotland
Association Books Editors
Jack C. Pashin, Stillwater, Oklahoma
Stephanie G. Thomas, Houston, Texas
Timothy Diggs, Houston, Texas
The American Association of Petroleum Geologists Books Refereeing Procedures
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Table of Contents
Title Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Copyright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
About the Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Note to the Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Wayne K. Camp, Elizabeth Diaz and Barry Wawak
Chapter 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
An Introduction to SEM Operational Principles and Geologic Applications for Shale
Hydrocarbon Reservoirs
Jason Huang, Timothy Cavanaugh and Boaz Nur
Chapter 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Integrated Preparation and Imaging Techniques for the Microstructural and Geochemical
Characterization of Shale by Scanning Electron Microscopy
Natasha Erdman and Nicholas Drenzek
Chapter 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Enhancing SEM Grayscale Images through Pseudocolor Conversion: Examples from
Eagle Ford, Haynesville, and Marcellus Shales
Wayne K. Camp and Barry Wawak
Chapter 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Multiscale Imaging of Shale Samples in the Scanning Electron Microscope
Herman Lemmens and Denise Richards
Chapter 5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Microfabrics Related to Porosity Development, Sedimentary and Diagenetic Processes,
and Composition of Unconventional Resource Shale Reservoirs as Determined by
Conventional Scanning Electron Microscopy
Roger M. Slatt and Neal R. O’Brien
Chapter 6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
SEM Characterization of Shale Gas Reservoirs Using Combined Secondary and
Backscatter Electron Methods: An Example from the Haynesville Shale, Texas and
Louisiana
David R. Spain and Ryan McLin
Chapter 7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
FIB-SEM and TEM Investigations of an Organic-rich Shale Maturation Series from the Lower
Toarcian Posidonia Shale, Germany: Nanoscale Pore System and Fluid-rock Interactions
Sylvain Bernard, Leon Brown, Richard Wirth, Anja Schreiber, Hans-Martin Schulz, Brian Horsfield,
Andrew C. Aplin, and Eliza J. Mathia
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Table of Contents v
Chapter 8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Pore Size Distribution and Morphology in the Horn River Shale, Middle and Upper
Devonian, Northeastern British Columbia, Canada
Tian Dong and Nicholas B. Harris
Chapter 9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Porosity Characterization of Various Organic-rich Shales from the Western Canadian
Sedimentary Basin, Alberta and British Columbia, Canada
Raphael A. J. Wüst, Brent R. Nassichuk, and R. Marc Bustin
Chapter 10. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Petrographic Characterization of the Eagle Ford Shale, South Texas: Mineralogy,
Common Constituents, and Distribution of Nanometer-scale Pore Types
Debra S. Jennings and Jonathan Antia
Chapter 11. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Applications of SEM Imaging to Reservoir Characterization in the Eagle Ford Shale,
South Texas, U.S.A.
Brian Driskill, Joel Walls, Juliana DeVito, and Steven W. Sinclair
Chapter 12. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Comparison of Porosity Distribution within Selected North American Shale Units by
SEM Examination of Argon-ion-milled Samples
James M. Rine, Erin Smart, William Dorsey, Kultaransingh Hooghan, and Michael Dixon
Chapter 13. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
SEM Observations on Ion-milled Samples of Devonian Black Shales from Indiana and
New York: The Petrographic Context of Multiple Pore Types
Juergen Schieber
Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Image Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
CD-ROM MATERIAL
Appendix A
Petrographic Analysis
Appendix B
Petrographic Descriptions and Thin Section Photomicrographs
Appendix C
Pseudocolor Catalog Images
Appendix D
Three-dimensional SEM Imaging and Digital Rock Physics
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Acknowledgments
AAPG wishes to thank the following for their generous contributions to
Electron Microscopy of Shale Hydrocarbon Reservoirs
AAPG Memoir 102
Memoir sponsors:
Chapter sponsors:
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation
Statoil
Trican Well Service
Contributions are applied toward the production cost of the publication, thus directly reducing the book’s purchase price and
making the volume available to a larger readership.
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About the Editors
Wayne K. Camp is a distinguished geological advisor with Anadarko Petroleum Cor-
poration, The Woodlands, Texas, where he has been employed since 1980, working vari-
ous domestic and international exploration and development projects. Prior to working
with Anadarko, Camp was employed for two years by Phillips Petroleum Company.
Camp received his B.A. degree in geology with honors from the State University Col-
lege at Oneonta, New York, and his M.S. degree in geology from Colorado State Uni-
versity, Fort Collins, Colorado. Camp’s expertise includes identifying and evaluating
new exploration play opportunities and prospect generation. Camp supervised various
geological and geophysical exploration and development teams at Anadarko from 1986
to 2004. His experience includes conventional and unconventional U.S. plays onshore,
subsalt and deep-water plays in the Gulf of Mexico, and offshore plays in Indonesia.
Camp is an active member of AAPG, the Geological Society of America, and the Hou-
ston Geological Society. He served as chair for the AAPG Unconventional Reservoirs
Research Group in 2004; was cochair for the 2005 Vail Hedberg Conference on tight-
gas sands; and was coeditor and contributor to the AAPG Hedberg Series No. 3 book,
which was awarded the Robert H. Dott Sr. Memorial Award for best AAPG special pub-
lication in 2010. Camp also serves as an advisor for the U.S. Department of Energy Un-
conventional Resources Technology Advisory Committee. Camp lives in Montgomery,
Texas, with his wife, Joanne, and has two daughters and two granddaughters.
Elizabeth Diaz has been the Chief Geoscientist at Ingrain, Incorporated, for the last four
and a half years; she has helped with the development and deployment of digital rock
physics solutions for industry. She has been pivotal in the development of Ingrain’s shale
product offering and works closely with clients to help solve pertinent industry problems
through the application of digital rock physics technology.
Prior to Ingrain, she was an expert in the application of rock physics and quantitative seis-
mic interpretation techniques, evaluating and risking the presence of reservoir rocks and
hydrocarbons on multiple exploration and appraisal projects worldwide (Nigeria, Brazil,
Libya, Kazakhstan, Yemen, Peru, Ecuador, the United States, and Colombia).
Diaz holds a B.S. in geology from Universidad Industrial de Santander and a M.S. in
geophysics from Stanford University, Stanford, California. At Stanford Rock Physics
Laboratory, she conducted rock physics research on the effect of glauconite on the elastic
properties, porosity, and permeability of reservoir rocks.
Barry E. Wawak is presently manager of the Reservoir Geology Group, Core
Laboratories Advanced Technology Center, Houston, Texas. He has spent his
30-year career applying technological solutions to reservoir characterization
problems. Recent industry developments in shale resource plays have renewed
his interest in applying scanning electron microscopic solutions to geological
problems. Prior to joining Core Laboratories in 2000, his career included stops
at Core Petrophysics, Incorporated, in Lafayette, Louisiana; Chevron Corpo-
ration in New Orleans and La Habra, California; and California Institute of
Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. His geology ed-
ucation includes undergraduate classes at California State University at Fuller-
ton and graduate studies at California State University at Los Angeles and the
University of New Orleans.
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Note to the Reader
This publication is a continuation of AAPG’s efforts to combine the best of both digital and print publications for its members.
Memoir 102, Electron Microscopy of Shale Hydrocarbon Reservoirs, consists of two sections.
Chapters are printed in their entirety in this volume. The DVD located in the inside back cover of this book contains all of the
chapters in digital form and special files. All are in full color.
The dual digital and print format allows authors greater scope for both length of manuscripts and number of color figures and
provides the reader much more versatility in using the content. For example, figures can be used directly for making slides or
Microsoft Powerpoint© presentations and can be enlarged on the screen as needed for easier viewing. Individual chapters can
be easily printed for later reading, and key word searching through the papers is possible. Finally, this format allows AAPG the
flexibility to publish a volume that contains material that will appeal to a wider audience with additional interests.
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Introduction W. Camp, E. Diaz, and B. Wawak, eds. Electron microscopy of shale hydrocarbon
reservoirs: AAPG Memoir 102, p. ix–xi.
Wayne K. Camp
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, 1201 Lake Robbins Dr., The Woodlands, Texas, 77380, U.S.A.
(e-mail: [email protected])
Elizabeth Diaz
Ingrain, Inc., 3733 Westheimer Rd. #300, Houston, Texas, 77027, U.S.A. (e-mail: [email protected])
Barry Wawak
Core Laboratories, 6316 Windfern Rd., Houston, Texas, 77040, U.S.A. (e-mail: [email protected])
Recent advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic grain size (,62 μm), shale and mudstones are dif-
fracture stimulation technology have opened up vast ficult to observe and describe using conventional
new oil and natural gas sources in shale formations. optical microscope techniques. Fortunately, the high-
Shale gas production in the United States was 5 tril- magnification capability of electron microscopy is
lion cubic feet (141 billion m3) in 2010, representing ideally suited to study fine-scale rock features, such
23% of the total U.S. dry-gas production (U.S. Energy as texture, composition, and porosity, down to the
Information Administration, 2012). Shale gas produc- nanometer scale. Recent advances in electron micro-
tion has also been established in Canada, and initial scopy technology have resulted in improved images
exploration drilling has begun outside North America, and analytical methods to better describe, evaluate,
most notably in Poland, Argentina, India, Australia, and understand shale hydrocarbon reservoirs.
and China. The purpose of this memoir is to provide a practi-
This so-called shale gale Yergin (2011) can also be cal reference for geologists, geophysicists, engineers,
measured by the increase in the number of active hori- and students to gain a better understanding of the
zontal drilling rigs in the United States that surpassed various state-of-the-art techniques and applications
the number of active vertical drilling rigs for the first of electron microscopy for shale hydrocarbon reser-
time in 2009. During the first half of 2012, active verti- voir evaluation. This reference volume is intended for
cal drilling rigs only accounted for 30% of the nearly both specialists and nonspecialists and includes the
2000 total active United States rigs (Baker Hughes, first published catalog of described scanning electron
2012). microscopic (SEM) images of productive shale hydro-
The rapid increase in horizontal wells target- carbon reservoirs that is hoped will serve as a useful
ing shale formations has demanded an improved guide for SEM petrographic interpretation and reser-
understanding of shale hydrocarbon reservoirs by voir analog studies.
geologists, geophysicists, and engineers, particu-
larly as shale exploration moves away from the tra-
ditional dry-gas fairways in response to declining OrganizatiOn
domestic natural gas prices in search for more liquid
hydrocarbon-rich regions. Many traditional reservoir Part 1: technical Papers
analytical methods fail to accurately characterize shale
reservoirs because of their complexity, small (micro- to This book is composed of three parts. Part 1 is a collec-
nanometer) pore size and low (micro- and nanodarcy) tion of 13 solicited, highly illustrated, peer-reviewed
permeability. papers by leading researchers from major universities,
Shale, and its nonfissile counterpart mudstone, are oil and gas companies, commercial laboratories, and
fine-grain sedimentary rocks composed of silt- and SEM and related equipment manufactures. The first
clay-size particles. Because of their extremely fine six chapters provide the reader with an introduction to
Copyright © 2013 by The American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
DOI: 10.1306/13391698M1021681
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