Shale Control with Balanced-Activity
Oil-Continuous Muds
M. E. Chenevert, SPE-AIME, Esso Production Research Co.
Introduction
Unstable shales have plagued the petroleum industry
for more than 30 years. All boreholes drilled into shale
formations experience some degree of washout, which
maybe tolerable in some wells but completely uncon-
trollable in others. Many causes of shale problems
have been postulated: mechanical factors such as mud
pressure, thermal stresses, pipe movement (both bang-
ing and swabbing), "rubble" shale, and plastic flow;
chemical factors such as hydration of montmorillonite
clay. One paper1 describes the dehydration of plastic
"gumbo" shales with invert emulsion muds. The tech-
nique reportedly works on soft, wet shales and re-
quires only that the salinity of the mud be greater
than the salinity of the water in the shale. (The salinity
of such shales seldom exceeds 40,000 ppm.)
Causes of Unstable Wellbores
Unstable wellbores occur when formation pressures
exceed the pressure exerted by the drilling fluid. Two
situations can produce such a condition: (a) the well-
bore fluid pressure is lower than the in-situ formation
pressure and (b) the in-situ fonnation pressure in-
creases because of water adsorption. Too Iowa fluid
pressure occurs when mud density is too low or when
bottom-hole pressures are reduced by swabbing with
the drill pipe. This type of instability normally can be
eliminated by drilling with increased mud weight or
by minimizing pressure surges with low viscosity muds
and slow pipe nlovement. Another more frequent
cause' of degradation is the excessive formation pres-
sure that develops when argillaceous formations ad-
The main cause of shale instability is water adsorption and subsequent swelling of the
wellbore. By adjusting the activity of t/1e water in the mud to that of the water in the
shale, this adsorption can be prevented and gaLlge boreholes can be drilled through
both hard and soft shales.
OCTOBER, 1970
sorb water. Problems due to hydration usually occur
some time after the formation is exposed and can be
prevented by using balanced-activity oil-continuous
muds.
Laboratory and field data have shown that many
formations are capable of adsorbing water2 . or ions
from water-base muds and are capable of adsorbing
water from oil-continuous muds. Adsorption* occurs
because of differences in chemical potential between
the mud and the formation, and continues until equi-
librium is achieved. When considering adsorption
potential for oil-continuous muds, only aqueous
chemical potentials need be considered because ion
transfer does not occur. In the case of water-base
muds, the problem is more complex because of ion
and clay movement as well as water movement be-
tween the mud and the formation.
It has been found that the more deeply buried
shales are highly compacted and contain low quanti-
ties of water. As geologic compaction occurs, water
is expelled from the shale and produces a degree of
dryness in the shale. The scarcity of water and the
abundance of charged clay surfaces results in an in-
crease in the adsorptive potential of the shale. S
Balanced Mud Concept
Water transfer from an oil-continuous mud to a for-
mation can be prevented by increasing the salinity of
*The term adsorption is used in thi's paper to describe the
transfer mechanisms believed to occur. This process is also fre-
l
quently referred to as absorption.
1309
the water phase of the mud until the aqueous chemical
potential of the mud is equal to that of the formation.
The aqueous chemical potential of either the mud or
the formation relative to pure water can be written as
u- Uo == RT In aw , (1)
where u is the chemical potential of the water in the
system, ·U o is the chemical potential of pure water, R
is the gas constant, T is absolute temperature and aw
is the activity of the water of that system. For a con-
stant T, the mud and the formation will have identical
water chemical potentials only when their water actvi-
ties are equal.
The water activity of a system is defined 4 as the
ratio of the fugacity (f) of the water in that system to
the fugacity of pure water (fo), or
f
aw == -;;- (2)
fo
For practical purposes, the fugacity ratio f/fo can be
replaced by the vapor pressure ratio p/Po, where P is
the vapor pressure of the water in that system and Po
is the vapor pressure of pure water. This assumption
is acceptable because .the correction factor used in
going from fugacity to vapor pressure for the pure
solvent is nearly equal to the correction factor of the
solution. The vapor p'ressure ratio is therefore nearly
equal to the fugacity ratio.
Balanced-activity oil-continuous muds are then
muds whose relative aqueous vapor pressure in the
drilling environment is essentially equal to the relative
aqueous vapor pressure of the formation penetrated.
Laboratory Determination of
Water Activity
The water activity of various shales was determined
from the adsorption characteristics of the drilled chips
recovered from each formation. For each formation
we developed an adsorption isotherm that related the
shale's activity to its water content.
The adsorption isotherms were obtained by plac-
ing clean, dried drilled chips in desiccators having
controlled activity atmospheres. The samples were
weighed daily until they were in equilibrium with the
atmosphere in the desiccator. The final sample weights
were then used to calculate the weight percent water
adsorbed. Normally, 2 weeks were required to attain
complete equilibrium; however, 90 percent of equi-
librium was usually attained in 1 day. A desorption
isotherm was obtained in the same way, except that
the samples were first hydrated in a 98 percent relative
vapor pressure environment before they were placed
in the desiccators. The adsorption-desorption iso-
therms were then plotted as shown in Fig. 1. The
in-situ weight percent water of the shale was calcu-
lated from shale density data and then the estimated
activity of the shale was determined by the use of the
adsorption-desorption isotherms.
The West Texas hard shale shown in Fig. 1 had
2.2 weight percent water; thus its average water
activity is 0.75.
The laboratory tests for detennining the water
1310
activity of the shale were conducted under atmos-
pheric conditions. The effective stress on the shale
sample under laboratory conditions, however, is ap-
proximately the same as the effective radial stress
acting on the shale under down-hole conditions-.
The effective radial stress (Ur) is given by the equa-
tion
CTr = CTIl: [1 - r~2] - (Pw - PI) r~2 ,. (3)
where Ux is the far-field horizonal effective stress, PI
the pore pressure of a nearby sand formation, Pw the
wellbore pressure, rw the radius of the wellbore and
r the radius under investigation. At the wellbore wall,
this equation reduces t05 Ur == PI - Pw. For balanced
drilling where Pi == Pw, the effective radial stress is
zero.
Down-hole temperatures tend to lower the aqueous
activity of the shale slightly2 and raise the activity of
the mud's aqueous phase slightly.6 On the average
these corrections alter the measured activity by about
0.05 and can be made when sufficient laboratory data
are available. Field results indicate that in most cases
such corrections are not necessary.
Experimental Swelling Tests
Laboratory swelling tests have confirmed the balanced
activity concept by showing that adsorption does not
take place when the activity of the water in the shale
is equal to the activity of the water in the mud.
In our tests strain gauges were attached to the sur-
face of the shale samples and the samples were im-
mersed in various water-base and oil-continuous
muds. Fluid-rock interactions producing displace-
ments as small as 1 micro-in. were detected.
The swelling tests showed that hard illitic shales,
previously thought to be inert, experience substantial
alteration when placed in water-base muds or un-
treated oil muds. Fig. 2 shows data for samples of a
hard West Texas illitic shale that were immersed in
six different oil-continuous emulsion fluids. Each fluid
contained a different amount of salt dissolved in the
water phase of the mud and therefore had a different
water activity. The activity value of. the mud was
obtained from standard tables. 6 The muds had a high-
temperature, high-pressure API fluid loss less than
2 cc (all oil). The upper curve is for a mud whose
water phase was essentially fresh water, and its water
activity was 1.0. After 24 hours, the shale had experi-
enced about 0.3 percent swelling in this mud. This
curve demonstrates that the hard shale is capable of
removing water from highly stable oil-continuous
fluids. As salt was added to the mud, the amount of
swelling decreased after a given period of time. We
found that when enough salt was added to the oil mud,
the aqueous activity of the mud was nearly equal to
the aqueous activity of the shale, and there was no
swelling. By adding too much salt, as reflected by the
bottom curve, it was possible to desorb water from
the shale, but at a rate much slower than the adsorbed
rate. The swelling data of Fig. 2 indicate that to pre-
vent swelling of this particular West Texas hard shale
the activity of the internal phase of the mud should
be approximately 0.75 to 0.70.
JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY
 A response similar to that in Fig. 2, was obtained
for all tested oil-continuous fluids that contain emulsi-
fied water. We also observed that the rate of swelling
was decreased by simply decreasing the amount of
water in the oil mud. Fig. 3 shows linear swelling
obtained after exposing the West Texas hard shale
to different oil muds for a period of 24 hours. These
data suggest that untreated, low-water-content muds
probably allow longer drilling before shale problems
occur.
Swelling tests were also run on an offshore Louisi-
ana soft shale. These tests (Fig. 4) show that swelling
of this shale can be prevented by matching the activity
of the water in the shale with the activity of the water
in the mud. The upper curve was obtained with an oil
mud containing a total salinity of 65,000 ppm, a value
more than twice the salinity of the water in the shale.
At this salinity the oil mud's activity was 0.94. Swell-
ing still occurred and showed that to prevent shale
swelling it is not enough simply to exceed shale water
salinities.
A cross-plot of swelling at 24 hours vs water ac-
tivity suggested that no swelling would occur when
the mud had an activity of 0.75. The adsorption iso-
therm for this shale predicted its water activity to
be 0.14.
Although the elongation of illltic shales is much
less than that of montmorillonite shales, illitic shales
can develop as much swelling pressure as montmoril-
lonite shales if they are confined and their expansion
is prevented. An earlier publication2 presents swelling
pressure data for such shales and shows that the swell-
ing pressures can be calculated provided the activity
of the water in the shale is known.
Design and Control of Balanced-Activity
Oil-Continuous Muds
Because of the differences among shales, balanced-
activity oil muds should be specifically designed for
each troublesome formation encountered. The basic
objective in designing an oil-continuous mud for a
specific troublesome formation is to adjust the activity
of the water phase of the mud so that the water is
essentially inert to the formation drilled; that is, so
that there is no significant water transfer from the mud
to the formation. With restricted water transfer, the
formation experiences little swelling and remains
competent while being drilled. This balance cannot
be achieved if the activity of the water in the mud is
significantly greater or less than the activity of the

0.75.-------r---.,..--..--...---

o c~ 0 .80 t----- -~------+---------l

~
a:C
W::J
:(~
~V)
u..::J
00::J 0.90 r-----+----~-~-___l

D::
4 t---r----t---+---+--+--+----l--------+--~
-... ...
>-z
>z
-
u.I
~
~
t=o
Uu
0.95 EMULSION CONTAINS
~ 3 r------j-----+---+---+---+---+----l--~£J____l
<t • 35% SALTWATER
~
~
• 20% SALTWATER
~ 2 t---r----t------+---+--+~=---t--~---+-------J 1.00 ~_~_ _" - - _ - - - J . - _ - - - - J
~
~
DESORPTION
--.:
o 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20
::.----
t----------+---+-~~--=-~=--------+- AD SORPTION - - - + - - - - - 1 LINEAR % SWELLING
AFTER 24 HOURS
Fig. 3-Swelling response, sal,ty oil muds.
0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 100
WATER ACTIVITY - Ow
0.5,-------y-------,..----....".--.........,
0.94
Fig. I-Sorption isotherm, West Texas hard shale.
ACTIVITY OF .INTERNAL PHASE
0.4r-------+------+--~'-----------1
0.4 r - - - - - - , - - - - - - - - - - - r - - - - - - - - ,
~
I 0.3 r - - - - - - - - - - t - - - - - - + - I - - - - - - - - J
~ 0.3 r------+-------+-----~
C)
Z
C) ACTIVITY OF INTERNAL PHASE :::i
Z 1.00 .....
LI.I 0.2
0.2
...
:::i
w
~
V)
0.80
S 0.91 ~
V)

~
0.1 0.88 «
LI.I
0.1
0.84 z
«
LLI 0.75 ~
z
::; 0 0
0.25 ______+-__ ~0.58

-OJ -0.1
.01 0.1 1.0 10 0.1 10 100
TIME - HOURS TIME - HOURS
fig. 2-Swelling-time curves, West Texas hard shale. Fig. 4-Swelling-time curves, offshore Louisiana soft shale.

OCTOBER, 1970 1311

water in the shale.
If several shales of different activities are exposed
in a given well, it is advisable to add enough salt to
balance the activity of the shale that has the lowest
activity. In doing so, water will be removed from the
other shales. Fortunately, this "shrinking" of the shale
penetrated by the wellbore is a very slow process. If
it is excessive, there is some indication that flaking of
the wellbore will develop.
Unfortunately, it has not been possible to develop
a simple relationship between water activity and
depth. It appears that since tectonic stresses and
geologic history vary ·between fields, the activity of
the water in the shale varies with location as well as
with depth.
The procedures for obtaining a shale's in-situ water
activity are followed as outlined in the previous sec-
tion. Once the adsorption isotherm is obtained, the
activity of the shale down hole is estimated by enter-
ing the plot with the down-hole or natural water con-
tent of the shale. This water content can be deter-
mined by using shale density measurements and the
formula
Weight percent water == Yma - Yb X 100, (4)
Yb (Yma - 1)
where Yma is grain specific gravity and Yb is bulk
specific gravity. If no wellsite density measurements
are available, Fig. 5 can be used as an approximation. 7
After the activity of the water in the shale is deter-
mined, a salt is added to an oil-continuous mud until
the activity of the water in the mud is equal to the
estimated activity of the water in the shale. Figs. 6
and 7 give the pounds of salt needed per barrel of
mud per percent water in the oil mud. As shown in
Fig. 6, the maximum effect that can be realized from
saturated NaCI is a water activity of 0.75. With
CaCl2 (Fig. 7), it is possible to reduce the activity of
the water in the mud to a value of about 0.32.
Early in this study, it was recognized that it would
be advantageous to monitor the activity values of the
shale and the mud daily at the wellsite. Several types
of instruments (activity meters) are presently being
3.0 1.5
0 Using balanced-activity oil-continuous muds, five
1000
2000
3000
~
LU RECENT TO
LU
~ 4000 MIOCENE
::z::
~
a.
LU
Q
5000
6000 EOCENE
--I
--PLIOCENE TO LOWER-
MIOCENE
7000
8000
9000
% POROSITY
2.7 GRAIN DENSITY ASSUMED
Fig. 5-Effect of age and depth on shale density, Dallmus.
1312
developed to provide such measurements. Field re-
sults to date with early models have shown that on
some wells it is possible to detect quickly the activity
differences between mud and shale. On several
troublesome wells the salinity of the mud was suc-
cessfully adjusted) either higher or lower, and the
shale problems were readily eliminated. Sometimes
it is difficult to determine the in-situ water activity of
the fornlation by direct measurement made on drilled
cuttings with the activity meters. This usually occurs
when the cuttings are very small and are significantly
altered by the drilling mud before they reach the sur-
face. In such cases, the adsorption isotherm method
may be used.
Activity meters have also proved useful for deter-
mining the activity of oil muds that contain several
different salts. Because of common ion effects, existing
methods for making such determinations are both
cumbersome and time-consuming.
Field Verification of Balanced
Mud Concept
About 25 wells have been drilled through 100,000 ft
of formation using balanced-activity oil-continuous
muds. In all tests, gauge holes were produced. Maxi-
mum enlargements of lh in. were recorded and these
enlargements occurred in less than 5 percent of the
footage drilled. These balanced muds appear useful
for any type of shale. Following are field results for
three different shales; a hard illitic shale found in West
Texas, a hard shale found in South Louisiana, and
soft shale found offshore Louisiana.
West Texas Shale
The West Texas shale occurs at a depth of 9,000 to
16,000 ft. It contains 57 percent quartz, 26 percent
feldspar, 1 percent calcite and 2 percent dolomite,
with only illite (15 percent) and chlorite (5 percent)
clays present. The shale has been analyzed by X-ray
diffraction and no trace of montmorillonite clay has
ever been observed. This absence is significant be-
cause previous theory assumed montmorillonite clay
to be the only clay capable of causing hole problems
by expansion. The shale was also found to contain
2.2 weight percent water with a total salinity of
20,000 ppm.
wells have been drilled through the shale with com-
plete shale stability. By contrast, one control well
drilled earlier with a commercially available invert
emulsion mud and one control well drilled with· a
lignosulfonate water-base mud had severe shale
sloughing and hole problems. Results from these seven
wells show that balanced-activity oil-continuous muds
can stabilize holes drilled through troublesome, hard,
illitic shales.
Control Well, Water-Base Mud. A lignosulfonate mud
used to drill the control well illustrated problems ex-
perienced in the West Texas hard shale with water-
based muds. As the shale was penetrated, the walls of
the borehole caved in, producing a considerable
amount of fill. As shown in Fig. 8, these cavings were
JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY
 9,000 rather large and angular. Such cavings must be drilled
into smaller pieces before they can be circulated out
of the borehole. Fig. 9 shows a bar graph of the
amount of fill recorded after each trip into the hole.
TOTAL FILL = 774FT At depths of 11,000 and 15,000 ft, more than 600 ft of
;: 10,000 fill was recorded. In this well the total section of shale
0. was 7,000 ft thick, and there was more than 7,000 ft
w
C of fill. A caliper log run after the hole was drilled
showed serious enlargements. Fig. 10 shows that at a
I depth of 10,500 ft the hole had enlarged from 9th
I in. to about 18 in.
11,000
o 200 400 600
Control Well, Commercial Invert Emulsion Mud. The
FEET OF FILL
use of water-base muds had demonstrated that the
Fig. II-Shale fill, oil-continuous mud. West Texas hard shale was water-sensitive. A com-
mercially available invert emulsion mud with a salinity
of 50,000 ppm CaCl2 was then used in an attempt to
control the shale. The amount of salt was considered
9,000
sufficient because the water in the shale had a salinity
of only 20,000 ppm.
>-----
10,000 The low-salinity invert emulsion mud was used to
drill from 9,000 to 11,000 ft. During drilling, there
11,000
was serious shale sloughing and the inve·rt mud was
I removed at 11,000 ft. Fig. 11 shows a bar graph of
I
fill that occurred while drilling with this mud. At about
1----
12,000 11,000 ft, more than 550 ft of fill was recorded, and
DEPTH - FT there were severe bit-sticking, high torque, and other
13,000 symptoms of an unstable wellbore. A caliper log
• showed that the section drilled with the invert mud
had severely washed out.
14,000

Wells Drllied with Balanced-Activity Oil-Continuous

• 15,000 Muds. More than 30,000 ft of gauge hole has been
TEST WELL 1 TEST WELL 2 drilled through the West Texas hard shale using bal-
TOTAL FILL
I
30 FT =I
TOTAL FILL = 21 FT
I I anced-activity oil-continuous muds. In each well, the
16,000
o 200 400 600 o 200 400 600 water phase of the oil-continuous mud, as dictated by
FEET OF FILL . FEET OF FILL laboratory tests, had about 270,000 ppm NaCI. The
activity of the mud was almost equal to the activity of
Fig. "I2-Shale fill, balanced-activity oil-continuous mUd.
the shale. During the drilling of these five wells there
were no hole problems associated with heaving shale.
On two occasions, material was easily fished from the
I I I i I I I I I I i I I I I I I I
9" 19" 9" 19"
.....- BIT SIZE - BIT SIZE Iii iii i i i I Iii iii i i i I
10,200' 8" .---BIT SIZE 19" 8" -BIT SIZE 19"
- 14,200'
--..... "
",.
!""'-

:: t=CALIPER "
t--
t--
t--
ECALIPER- I - - 1--1--

'" 10,250'
... 14,250'
- BIT RUN~;ff--;--+---+--+----+--+--+---+---l
AT 14,266' t---+-+-t--+--+---+--+--+--+-+---+---1

.......
... ,......""

.- 14,300'
10,300'
CONTROL WELL TEST WELL 1 CONTROL WELL TEST WELL 2
LlGNOSULFONATE BALANCED-ACTIVITY LlGNOSULFONATE BALAN CED-A CTIVITY
WATER-BASE MUD OIL-CONTINUOUS MUD WA TER-BASE MUD OIL-CONTINUOUS MUD

Fig. I3-Caliper logs, West Texas hard shale. Fig. I4-Caliper logs, West Texas hard shale.

1314 JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY

 LIGNOSULFONATE MUD OIL CONTINUOUS MUD BALANCED-ACTIVITY
OIL-CONTINUOUS MUD
8" 12" 16" SIt 9" 13" 5" 9" 13"
Iii iii iii DEPTH I i i i I Iii I DEPTH Iii iii iii
17,700' 17,700'
I

BIT SIZE ..... BIT SIZE -~ BIT SIZE - ..

= CAL PER ~
,
(HOLE SIZ~ ::i
~
........

-r_

\..
f

'\
~
-
17,750' 17,750' :: iF;CALIPER= --
r;;.. .... :-li CALIPER
,HOLE SIZ E)
= =(HOLE SIZE) -

......

17,800' 17,800'
Fig. 15~Caliper logs, South Louisiana hard shale.

hole because of its excellent condition. Fig. 12 shows
that there was negligible fill in Wells 1 and 2. Caliper
logs from these wells and from the lignosulfonate con-
trol well are shown in Figs. 13 and 14. Fig. 14 shows
a 14-in. shift in the caliper log for Well 2 at a depth
of 14,265 ft. Several other shifts were observed on
this log, and in each case a new bit had been run at
the same depth as the shift. It is apparent that the
wellbores are so smooth that 14 -in. variations due to
worn bits are reflected on the caliper log.
Considerable drilling time was saved because of the
elimination of rig time usually spentin drilling fill.
Hazardous conditions such as stuck pipe and high
torque were eliminated. The liner for Well 2 was acci-
dentally dropped 2,000 ft, then easily fished out of
the hole on the first try with no indications of being
stuck.
South Louisiana Shale
Serious washouts are often encountered in South Lou-
isianawhere water-base muds are used to drill trouble-
some hard shale (see Well A, Fig. 15), which occurs
between 17,000 and 19,000 ft. This shale contains
about 18 percent quartz, 5 percent feldspar, 1 percent
calcite, 57 percent illite, and 18 percent chlorite. An
attempt was made to drill this formation with a com-
mercially available oil-continuous mud containing 5
percent fresh water in the internal phase. The hole
enlarged and shale cavings caused serious drilling
soft shale, high in montmorillonite clay content, was
encountered at a depth of about 3,200 ft in an offshore
Louisiana area. Attempts to drill this shale with a
water-base mud resulted in severe clay swelling and
subsequent drilling difficulties. A balanced-activity
oil-continuous mud was evenually used, which elimi-
nated the shale swelling problem and enabled a gauge
borehole to be drilled.
Laboratory analysis showed this shale to consist of
15 percent quartz, 1 percent feldspar, 1 percent dolo-
mite, 38 percent illite, 35 percent montmorillonite,
and 10 percent kaolinite. The shale contained 11
weight percent water with a salinity of 30,000 ppm.
Shale strength tests (Fig. 16) showed this shale to
withstand a 400-psi stress differential under down-
hole conditions. As water was added to the shale, its
strength rapidly fell to zero.
A caliper log obtained after the balanced-activity
oil-continuous mud was used (Fig. 17) showed the
1000 ......-----.---~--..-------.---~-----,
3500 PSI
c;; 800
~
:z:-
... ~v Pc
600
"
Zo
..... 0
~an
I

400
"'~
problems (see Well B, Fig. 15). A sidetrack was Q
...I
eventually set and the activity of the oil mud was ..... 3500 PSI
lowered to 0.75. A trouble-free hole and a gauge >= 200
caliper suggested that an adequate activity balance
had been achieved by saturating the water phase of the
mud with sodium chloride. 10 20 30 40 50 60
WEIGHT % WATER
Offshore Louisiana
Fig. 16--Strength-hydration relationship,
Severe drilling problems were experienced when a South Louisiana soft shale.

OCTOBER, 1970 1315

 6" 10" 14" estimated by direct measurements on samples of the
I I I I I shale.
3. Water adsorption can be prevented by adjusting
BIT SIZE the activity of the water in the mud to the activity of
~CALIPER (HOLE SIZE)
the water in the shale.
4. Gauge boreholes can be drilled through both
hard and soft shale using balanced-activity oil-
continuous muds.
Acknowledgments
I should like to acknowledge the contributions of J. A.
Polasek and J. R. Scott of Esso Production Research
Co. for their assistance in the development of the
WATER-BASE
MUD USED
laboratory phase of this work.

t
SPECIAL OIL
CONTINUOUS
MUD USED
3350'-
Fig. 17-Galiper log, offshore Louisiana soft shale.
hole to be enlarged above 3,300 ft where the water-
base mud was used and to gauge for ·the rest of the
hole where the balanced oil mud was used.
Conclusions
The following conclusions are based on extensive
laboratory data and field results.
1. The main cause of shale instability for both soft
and hard shales is water adsorption and subsequent
swelling of the wellbore.
2. The in-situ water activity of the shale can be
References
1. Mondshine, T. C. and Kercheville, J. D.: "Successful
Gumbo Shale Drilling", Oil and Gas J., March 28, 1966.
2. Chenevert, M. E.: "Shale Alteration by Water Adsorption",
J. Pet. Tech. (Sept., 1970) 1141-1147.
3. Chenevert, M. E., "Adsorptive Pore Pressures of Argillace-
ous Rocks", paper presented at Eleventh Symposium on
Rock Mechanics, Berkeley, Calif., June 16-19, 1969.
4. Robinson, R. A. and Stokes, R. H.: Electrolyte Solutions,
2nd ed., Butterworths Scientific Publications, London
(1959) 25.
5. Hubbert, M. K. and Willis, D. G.: "Mechanics of Hydrau-
lic Fracturing", Trans., AIME (1957) 210, 153-166.
6. International Critical Tables, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc.,
New York (1933) 3, 297-300.
7. Dallmus, K. F.: "Mechanics of Basic Evaluation and its
Relation to the Habitat of Oil in the Basin", Habitat of
Oil, AAPG (1958) 42,883-931. JPT
Original manuscript received in Society of Petroleum Engineers
office Sept. 28, 1969. Revised manuscript received May 30, 1970.
Paper (SPE 2559) was presented at SPE 44th Annual Fall Meeting,
held in Denver, Colo., Sept. 28-0ct. 1, 1969. © Copyright 1970
American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engi-
neers, Inc.
This paper will be printed in Transactions volume 249, which
will cover 1970.

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