SUMMARY The hydro-mechanical behaviour of shales is becoming one of the most important issues in modern geomechanics, largely driven by petroleum industries (i.e., the extraction of shale gas), the sequestration of CO2 and the nuclear waste geological storage. In any such application, a deep understanding of the hydro-mechanical behaviour of the involved materials is of primary significance. Th...

Mitchell and his team of geologists and engineers began working on the shale challenge in 1981, trying different combinations of processes and technologies before ultimately succeeding in 1997 with the use of a “slick-water” frac that made Barnett Shale economical to develop and in turn changed the future of the US natural gas industry [7]. Continuing on Mitchell’s success progress followed a p...

Fine-grained sedimentary rocks (shale and mudstone) play important roles in global CO2 abatement efforts through their uses in carbon capture and storage (CCS), radioactive waste storage, and shale gas extraction. These different technologies, however, rely on seemingly conflicting premises regarding the sealing properties of shale and mudstone, suggesting that those rocks that lend themselves ...

We examined microbial communities from enriched fine and retorted shale particles using sequencing of V4 variable region of 16S rRNA. High number of microbial genera was found in both enriched shale by-products that were dominate by Actinobacteria, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, showing differences due to microbial colonization after the pyrolysis process.

Deep shale natural gas deposits made accessible by new technologies are quickly becoming a demonstrative share of North America’s energy portfolio. The pace and scale of recent extraction overwhelms local and state planning and regulatory bodies and is exempted from national regulation. Extraction is dispersed and the full extent of cultural and environmental impact is equally dispersed and var...

Natural gas extraction is experiencing what has been called a quiet revolution. The industry historically viewed natural gas as trapped in reservoirs, where it collects over thousands of years after exiting source rock. Though hard to find, the reservoirs easily give up large amounts of their holdings when penetrated by drilling. But what if natural gas could be extracted directly from source r...

Rapid growth of hydraulic fracturing for shale gas within the USA and the possibility of shale developments within Europe has created public concern about the risks of spills and leaks associated with the industry. Reports from the Texas Railroad Commission (1999 to 2015) and the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission (2009 to 2015) were used to examine spill rates from oil and gas well pads. Pollutio...

Permeability is one of the most important parameters to evaluate gas production in shale reservoirs. Because shale permeability is extremely low, gas is often used in the laboratory to measure permeability. However, the measured apparent gas permeability is higher than the intrinsic permeability due to the gas slippage effect, which could be even more dominant for materials with nanopores. Incr...

The gas flow in shale matrix is of great research interests for optimized shale gas extraction. The gas flow in the nano-scale pore may fall in flow regimes such as viscous flow, slip flow and Knudsen diffusion. A 3-dimensional nano-scale pore network model was developed to simulate dynamic gas flow, and to describe the transient properties of flow regimes. The proposed pore network model accou...

Complexity in shale-gas reservoirs lies in the presence of multiscale networks of pores that vary from nanometer to micrometer scale. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope imaging are promising tools for a better understanding of such complex microstructures. Obtaining 3D shale images using focused ion beam-SEM for accurate reservoir forecasting and petrophysical assess...