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Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitutes inorganic substance and bitumens. Based on their deposition environment, oil shales are classified as marine, lacustrine and terrestrial oil shales. Oil shales differ from oil-bearing shales, shale deposits that contain petroleum (tight oil) that is sometimes produced from drilled wells. Examples of oil-bearing shales are the Bakken Formation, Pierre Shale, Niobrara Formation, and Eagle Ford Formation. Accordingly, shale oil produced from oil shale should not be confused with tight oil, which is also frequently called shale oil. Deposits of oil shale occur around the world, including major deposits in the United States. A 2016 es

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Numerical investigation on water exchange of shale samples

Alessio Ferrari, Sara Incollingo

Interest in the hydraulic and mechanical characterization of shales has grown in recent years, because of their application in the context of energy geotechnics. In the frame of nuclear waste disposal shales are considered as host formations for the placements of nuclear waste at high depths. In the frame of hydrocarbon production they are considered as unconventional reservoirs, from which extracting natural gas. Understanding how fluids flow through shales is then a key aspect for both fields of application. This paper focuses on the analysis of the transport of water vapour through laboratory samples. After reviewing the balance and flow laws that govern the transport of fluid in unsaturated porous media, a simplified model is put forward. The model was implemented in a commercial finite element code, and it was used to reproduce the results of a literature study on wetting and drying of Opalinus Clay shale samples, imposed through the vapour equilibrium technique. Back analysis of the water content and volume strains of these specimens suggests that existing models underestimate the actual flow rate of water vapour which takes place at low suctions. The current interpretation also seems to be consistent with microstructural investigations on the interconnection between large pores of this material.

E D P SCIENCES2020

Quantification of Viscous Creep Influence on Storage Capacity of Caprock

Lyesse Laloui, Roman Makhnenko, Ludovic Räss

In the light of growing concerns for the climate change, it is of particular interest for governments to encourage efficient capture and safe storage of large amounts of carbon dioxide in the subsurface. In this perspective and in order to accurately predict the short and long-term response of the reservoir, a precise characterization of the geomechanical properties has to be carried out. In addition to the classical poroelastic properties, time-dependent deformation, such as viscous creep should also be considered. Storage capacity of a caprock may be seriously affected by local creep deformation allowing fast vertical fluid flow through an a priori very impermeable formation. Within this study, we investigate the ease to creep of Opalinus clay (Jurassic shale) under shallow geological storage conditions and predict the propagation of high porosity channels at operational time scales. The effective poroviscoelastic parameters of rock are inferred from the novel laboratory experiments that allow evaluation of time-dependent deformation. The bulk viscosity of the shale is found to be ∼ 1014 - 1015 Pa·s and it decreases with rise of temperature and pore fluid pressure to total mean stress ratio. Furthermore, the propagation speed of high porosity channels (porosity waves) is calculated to be on the order of the centimeters per year.

2017

Retention Properties and Permeability of Shales

Valentina Favero

The water retention mechanisms play a major role in either fluid trapping due to the capillary forces present in low permeability formations, as in the case of shale gas reservoir, or in the resaturation of shale formations after ventilation, as in the case of deep geological repositories. Moreover, the permeability and the swelling/shrinkage behaviour of shale are related to suction, or the degree of saturation variations. The poster presents experimental techniques and results related to the analysis of the water retention behaviour and permeability-porosity relationship for Swiss shales.

2013

Petroleum

Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name petroleum covers both

Shale oil

Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock (kerogen) int

Oil sands

Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally

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