t Special section

Introduction to special section: Petrophysical analysis for shale reservoir

evaluation: Methods, progress, and case studies
Guochang Wang1, Shu Jiang2, Timothy R. Carr3, and Matthew Boyce4

Shale oil and shale gas accumulation and production
are significantly affected by shale properties, including
thickness, organic matter properties (type, richness,
and thermal maturity), brittleness, natural fractures, ge-
ostress, matrix porosity, matrix permeability, water sat-
uration, and reservoir pressure. Among the techniques
to evaluate these properties, petrophysical analysis has
its merit and has been widely used in different shale
plays around the world. To improve the interpretation
results using wireline logs, multiple issues should be ad-
dressed. For example, how do we solve the mineral ef-
fect on organic matter richness estimate using density
log? Is there a simple and reliable model to estimate the
total and effective porosity of organic-rich shale? How
do we effectively determine the water saturation of
shale reservoirs? How do we extract the information
of natural fractures, geostress, and reservoir pressures
in shale reservoirs from wireline logs? This special sec-
tion covers issues associated with petrophysical analy-
sis for shale reservoirs.
Dong et al. analyze the pore structure characteris-
tics of a shale gas reservoir in Sichuan Basin, China.
A new method was developed for the quantitative char-
acterization of pore structure.
Liu et al. calculate the total organic carbon (TOC)
of Shahezi shale using the variable-coefficient Δ Lg R
technique. By defining the key parameters that affect
the TOC prediction as the undetermined coefficients
and determining them according to the logging and
geological data for each well, this method provides a
more accurate result than Δ Lg R technique.
Martin et al. find that natural fracture presence can
be predicted based on the composition of the rock,
which can aid in locating areas that have the potential
to create more complex fracture networks upon hy-
draulic stimulation. Specially, high concentration of
natural fractures can be found in zones depleted in
aluminum.
Kamruzzaman et al. present a workflow to distin-
guish rock types within the reservoir interval of the
Niobrara Formation in the Denver Basin, United States.
This workflow integrates large-scale geologic compo-
nents with small-scale petrophysical rock properties
to categorize distinct lithofacies in these low-porosity
and low-permeability shale rocks.
Hu et al. evaluate the characteristics of pore struc-
ture and fluid uptake of the Yeso (Paddock and Blinebry
Members), Abo, and Cisco Formations in the Northwest
Shelf in southeast New Mexico. The porosity and per-
meability values, from log analyses as well as laboratory
mercury injection capillary pressure and gas pycnome-
try-permeameter measurements, and at different obser-
vational scales, are generally consistent.
Luo et al. expect a universal method to evaluate
properties of rocks, such as pore tortuosity, matrix
porosity, and connectivity. The results show that a log-
arithmic relation exists between pore fractal dimension
and porosity and the relationship between tortuosity
and porosity has the form of power.

1
Saint Francis University, Engineering Department, 117 Evergreen Dr., Loretto, Pennsylvania 15940, USA.
2
The University of Utah, Energy & Geoscience Institute, 201 Presidents Circle Room 201, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA.
3
West Virginia University, Department of Geology and Geography, 330 Brooks Hall, 98 Beechurst Ave., Morgantown, West Virginia 26505, USA.
4
EPOCH Consulting LLC., Houston, Texas, USA.
Published ahead of production 07 October 2020; published online 24 October 2019. This paper appears in Interpretation, Vol. 7, No. 4 (November
2019); p. SJi–SJi.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1190/INT-2019-1002-SPSEINTRO.1. © 2019 Society of Exploration Geophysicists and American Association of Petroleum Geologists

Interpretation / November 2019 SJi

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