Álvaro Racero, Director ejecutivo de Desarrollo Técnico de REPSOL Mesa 2. Sostenibilidad e innovación tecnológica IV Simposio Empresarial Internacional Funseam: El Sector energético frente a los retos del 2030 Barcelona, 1 de Febrero de 2016

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SHALE GAS & TIGHT OIL
BARCELONA, 1 Febrero 2016
Alvaro F. Racero
Francisco Hernández Ortiz

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The Hydrocarbon System
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Main processes and elements
www. Petroleum Support.com
Processes Elements
177o C
49o C
Hydrocarbon system is compounded by a set of processes
and elements that interact between them with the final
result of the creation of a hydrocarbon accumulation

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The pores of the rocks
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Pores are spaces within the rock with the ability of contain fluids
PORE size of millimetre scale
(visible by the human eye)
PORE size close to 0,1 mm (limit of
the resolution of the human eye)
Comparative scale of pore sizes of the rocks
and hydrocarbon molecules
Source: web pages of different companies, agencies and service companies of the industry
Milímetro
Micrómetro
Nanómetro .

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The fluids of the hydrocarbon systems
4
From a source rock with a specific organic matter content,
the different hydrocarbons are generated in the subsurface
Light OilHeavy Oil and Bitumen Gas
source
rock
Source: web pages of different companies, agencies and service companies of the industry

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What are Unconventional Hydrocarbons?
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UNCONVENTIONAL HYDROCARBONS are hydrocarbons with low quality in their static and/or dynamic related
parameters. It means that unconventional hydrocarbons are hydrocarbons with high viscosity, and/or low mobility, and/or
hydrocarbons located in rocks with very low porosity, and/or very low permeability.
Mobility = The ratio of permeability to viscosity (well productivity is directly
proportional to the mobility-thickness product)
Permeability = The ability, or measurement of a rock's ability, to
transmit fluids from pore to pore (typically measured in darcies or millidarcies)
Connected pores give a rock permeability
GRAIN
GRAIN
GRAIN
GRAIN
GRAIN
Hydrocarbons are
compounds of hydrogen
and carbon that can be
found in the pore space of
the subsurface rocks
LightOil
Viscosity = A property of fluids and slurries that indicates their
resistance to flow from pore to pore (typically measured in poise or (cp) centipoise)
HeavyOil
BitumenGas
Porosity = The percentage of pore volume or void space, or that
volume within the rock that can contain fluids (typically measured between 0–1,
or as a percentage between 0–100%)
High porosity Low porosity Tight porosity
GRAIN
GRAIN
GRAIN
GRAIN
GRAIN
GRAIN
GRAIN
Some parameters implicated in a possible definition
Source: web pages of different companies, agencies and service companies of the industry

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What are Unconventional Hydrocarbons?
6
Shale Oil / Gas
Reservoir = Shale rocks (with high percentage of organic
matter) that have very low porosities and permeabilities
Reservoir is the same to source rock
Fracture technologies must be applied for an economic production of the hydrocarbon
Tight Oil / Gas
Reservoir is different to source rock
Reservoir = Clastic/Carbonate rocks
with low porosity and/or permeability
Rock with small and
not connected pores =
Tight
Source: web pages of different companies, agencies and service companies of the industry
Rock with an extremely small grain
size and with a high percentage of
organic matter content = Shale

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Technologies
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• Massive use of fracking and new completions design have not been possible until around the middle of the last decade.
• Cost of the massive fracking is around the 60% of the total cost of the well and is necessary for the obtention of commercial flows.
Fractures
Shale Gas Bed
The shale gas bed is fractured
because the pressure applied
from the wellbore
Depth(meters)
2.134 meters
0 meters
Depth(feet)
Fracking
operations
Fracking
operations
Fresh water
Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing
Technical Analysis - E&P Business Development – EMD of E&P (May 2014)

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Technologies
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Proppant function
Source: web pages of different companies, agencies and service companies of the industry

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Technologies
9
Proppant and flowback
To the well
From the
well
Flowback
after
treatment
Flowback
before
treatment
Proppant
(fracture support)
Ceramic proppant
(artificial manufacture)
Source: web pages of different companies, agencies and service companies of the industry
Natural sand
Proppant sand bags Resin coated proppant
Synthetic proppant Ceramic proppant
Bauxite proppant
Different classes of proppant
Technical Analysis - E&P Business Development – EMD of E&P (May 2014)

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Technologies
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The hydraulic fracturing operation and the equipment
Additives
Manifold
Water
storage
Proppant
storage
Blender
trucks
Water storageProppant storage Manifold
Wellhead
Blender
Trucks
Hydraulic fracturing treatment,
Woodford Shale, Canadian
County, Oklahoma, for which
Halliburton provided 52,000 hhp.
Source: JPT, December 2010

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The Paradigm Change
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The Emerging Plays in USA
Source:EnergyInformationAdministrationbasedondatafromvariouspublishedstudies.UpdatedMay2011

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Oil Price effect
12

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