Abstract
The influence of water on the pore system and gas desorption in shale remains an open question that is not yet fully understood. In this study, we present the effect of water on the shale pore system and recovered desorbed gas through a series of measurements on shale samples. We utilized the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) low pressure N2 adsorption and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) to observe and analyze the effects of water immersion and moisture on the pore system of shale samples from Batu Gajah (BG) and Kroh shale formations in Malaysia. The impact of water on desorption was then measured using the United States former Bureau of Mines (USBM) modified method. The results showed that the micropore and mesopore volumes of the Batu Gajah (BG) and Kroh (KH) shale samples were reduced by 64.84% and 44.12%, respectively, after the samples were immersed in water. The BET-specific surface area declined by 88.34% and 59.63% for the BG and KH sample, respectively. Desorption results showed that the methane desorbed volume was (KH: 1.22 cc/g, BG: 0.94 cc/g) for the water immersed sample, and (KH: 0.72 cc/g, BG: 0.60) for the equilibrated sample. The difference can be attributed to the proportion of the organic (total organic carbon) and inorganic (clay) content found in the two shale samples. The total organic carbon (TOC) existing in the KH sample was 12.1 wt %, which was greater than the organic carbon content of the BG sample (2.1 wt %). The clay content was found to be more dominant in the BG shale when compared to the KH shale.
Highlights
The growing energy demand and the recent advances in stimulation techniques including horizontal well drilling and hydraulic fracturing have made shale gas a significant source of energy around the world [1,2]
Since water is the major component of fracturing fluid which stimulates shale gas reservoirs, conducted an experimental study to investigate the influence of water on the pore system and dewe conducted an experimental study to investigate the influence of water on the pore system and sorption in two Malaysian shale samples (BG and KH shales)
A preliminary characterization of mineralogy and total organic carbon (TOC) of the two subject shale samples was first carried out to correlate with the findings
Summary
The growing energy demand and the recent advances in stimulation techniques including horizontal well drilling and hydraulic fracturing have made shale gas a significant source of energy around the world [1,2]. Shale gas has been in the spotlight as a new unconventional fossil-fuel energy source. According to EIA Annual Energy Outlook 2016, shale gas contributed about. Shale gas is mainly methane, which is extracted from organic rich fine grained sedimentary rocks. Shale gas reservoirs generally have extremely low permeability and contain high total organic carbon contents [4]. They are known to be highly heterogeneous in terms of pore structure and mineralogical composition. The evaluation and characterization of the pore system and the mineralogical composition of shales are crucial in understanding gas storage and resource estimation
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