An exhaustive field study of the Cambrian stratigraphy of the northern Wasatch region indicates that in addition to the Blacksmith Fork section there are two complete and better exposed middle and upper sections. Several other good exposures of the lower Middle Cambrian section have been studied in detail. The Spence shale is found to be a member low in the Langston, not the basal member of the Ute. Relative ages of the Spence shale and Ptarmigania faunas have been determined. Other Cambrian faunal zones have been discovered and are discussed. Paleontologic evidence suggests that the Nounan formation is of Upper Cambrian (Cedaria) age. Laboratory and field evidence indicates the probable Lower Cambrian age of the Brigham formation.

The aim of this study is to estimate the future school enrollment in the Uintah School District that results from oil shale development . Future need for classrooms and teachers is also projected, and costs to the school district for providing this need are estimated. Yearly revenue from the oil shale plant and from new residential buildings due to the pl ant is also estimated. The annual costs and revenues are compared and it is observed that the costs exceed the revenue· during the first five years . The deficit can be reduced, however , if stagger sessions are used to provide needed classrooms and teachers . Also , temporary rather than permanent structures could go a long way towards reducing the cost to the school district. It is observed that a premature withdrawal of the oil shale company from the county would produce insolvency for the school district . The financial ability of the district in terms of assessed valuation is very closely related to the success of the shale industry . The time needed for industry maturity and eventual withdrawal is a very crucial factor in determining the needed finances of the school district. Caution must be exercised before any "big" capital expense is undertaken. Stagger sessions in combination with temporary structures may be the most prudent and economical way to provide the needed facilities . Stagger sessions eliminate capital expense, and the temporary structures could be sold or turned to other uses when not needed for classroom use. If stagger sessions are used, there may be no financial adjustments required of the school district in the event of industry withdrawal. This study should help education planners in the district involved to plan and execute a prudent school program despite the pressures from fast population increases . It should also help the planners to look ahead in securing funds to run the district. Armed with such statistics as are found in this study , the school district , the state government, and the oil shale companies could hopefully work out a method of filling in the gap during the revenue-short period until the industry fully matures .

No description available.

The Floyd (Neal) Shale is an organic-rich black shale in the Black Warrior Basin that is being explored for its unconventional gas potential. To understand the stratigraphic architecture of the black shale facies in Mississippi, a detailed examination of well logs, conventional core, well log correlation (cross sections) and isopach maps were used to delineate and characterize the Neal Shale depositional facies. From this study it can be concluded that parasequences associated with the upper Pride Mountain Formation, Hartselle, Floyd Shale and Bangor Limestone are equivalent to resistive units in the Neal Shale in Alabama. In Mississippi, the upper Pride Mountain Formation and Hartselle are distinctly separate and the Floyd Shale and Bangor Limestone comprise all equivalent units in the Neal Shale. The Neal Shale reaches maximum thickness of 125 ft and structurally deeper areas with maximum thickness of shale are key areas to focus for future potential gas exploration.

Both crystalline and sedimentary rocks are being considered as potential host rocks for a deep geological repository in Canada. Deep-seated sedimentary rocks in the Michigan Basin, Ontario, Canada contain highly saline ground and pore waters. The relatively high I of these waters may influence speciation and rock matrix sorption properties. To this end, laboratory sorption experiments were conducted to examine sorption of Pd(II) on sodium bentonite, illite and Ordovician age shale as a function of pH and solution I and initial concentration of Pd. Solutions with pH values in the range of 5 to 9, I ranging from 0.1 to 4 M and initial concentration of Pd ranging from 5×10 −8 to 1×10 −6 M were considered. A sorption time of 14 days was used and the separation method was by centrifuge. Experiments were performed under aerobic conditions at 25 ◦ CC, and the Eh value of the solution ranged from 300 to 600 mV. The data from sorption experiments were used to validate surface complexation models developed in PHREEQC with the JAEA TDB. The sorption of Pd on bentonite, shale and illite all showed strong dependence on I and pH. The dependence on initial concentration of Pd was used to plot sorption isotherms. The slope of the isotherms showed that Pd was forming inner- and outer- sphere complexes inside the stern layer for sorption onto bentonite and illite. It also showed however that shale was most likely undergoing cooperative sorption. Strong fit was found between the single layer surface complexation model for montmorillonite (the major constituent clay mineral of sodium bentonite) and experimental data, but not for illite (the major constituent clay mineral of shale). / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

No description available.

No description available.

[pt] Reservatórios de shale gas/shale oil possuem elevado grau de anisotropia devido à presença de fraturas naturais (NFs) e também da orientação dos estratos. Com isso as fraturas induzidas hidraulicamente (HFs) interagem com as NFs e geram uma rede de fraturas com morfologia complexa. A existência de NFs modifica o campo de tensões no folhelho e influencia diretamente o comportamento geomecânico das HFs durante a operação de fraturamento, gerando ramificações na fratura dominante e contribuindo para a formação da rede complexa de fraturas. A construção de uma rede de fraturas aumenta significativamente a condutividade da formação, pois conecta fraturas e poros que anteriormente encontravam-se isolados, incrementando assim o índice de produtividade dos poços e proporcionando maior viabilidade econômica nos projetos em reservatórios de shale gas/oil. Este trabalho apresenta uma análise de sensibilidade da influência do espaçamento entre fraturamentos na construção da rede de fraturas complexas gerada em shales, visando entender como este parâmetro modifica o volume de reservatório estimulado e a distribuição de propante na rede de fraturas, de maneira a evitar problemas nesta fase do projeto e assim, manter a sustentação da rede economicamente viável. A revisao de literatura contempla os principais trabalhos publicados sobre este tema e os modelos não-convencionais de fraturas (UFM) usados para a modelagem da rede de fraturas complexas. A análise de sensibilidade será realizada por meio do software MShale, que usa um método estocástico de rede de fraturas discretas (DFN) e resolve numericamente as equações de equilíbrio e da poroelasticidade para shales, em termos de tensões efetivas, além das equações de conservação de massa, momento linear e energia com dissipação viscosa para escoamento lento (creeping flow). Para a análise, os demais parâmetros que influenciam na contrução da rede serão mantidos constantes e somente o espaçamento entre fraturamentos sofrerá variação. / [en] Shale gas/shale oil reservoirs have a high degree of anisotropy due to the presence of natural fractures (NFs) and also the orientation of beddings. Thus, hydraulically induced fractures (HFs) interact with NFs and generate a network of fractures with complex morphology. The existence of NFs modifies the stress field in the shale and directly influences the geomechanical behavior of the HFs during the fracturing operation, generating branches in the dominant fracture and contributing to the complex network of fractures. The construction of a network of fractures significantly increases the conductivity of the formation, as it connects previously isolated fractures and pores, thus increasing the productivity index of the wells and providing greater economic viability in the shale gas/oil reservoir designs. This work presents a sensitivity analysis of the influence of fracturing spacing in the construction of the network of complex fractures generated in shales, aiming to understand how this parameter modifies the volume of stimulated reservoir and the distribution of propant in the network of fractures, in order to avoid problems in this step of the design and thus, maintain the economical viability of the network. The literature review includes the main published works on this subject and the non-conventional fracture models (UFM) used to model the network of complex fractures. Sensitivity analysis will be performed using the MShale software, which uses a stochastic of the discrete fracture network (DFN) method and numerically solves the equilibrium equations and poroelasticity for shales in terms of effective stresses, in addition to mass conservation equations, linear momentum and energy with viscous dissipation for creeping flow. For the analysis, the other parameters that influence the construction of the network will be kept constant and only the spacing between fracturings will suffer variation.

This investigation was undertaken to determine the feasibility of producing a cellular, lightweight product by subjecting shales to temperatures of 2100 ± 100 °F in a muffle furnace. Such a product can be utilized as an aggregate for lightweight concrete to supplement cinders which have long been used. The growing scarcity of cinders and the inferior quality of the cinders now available account for the demand for another material to replace them. Samples of weathered and non-weathered, Liberty Hall shale; non-weathered, Martinsburg shale; weathered and non-weathered, MacCrady shale; and non-weathered, Brillier shale were obtained from deposits located in the state of Virginia. The degree of bloating or expansion of the shales was measured by determining the bulk density of the shale before and after exposure to 2100 ± 100 °F. The best bloating shale investigated, non-weathered Liberty Hall, bloated from a bulk density of 2.349 to 0.544 gram. per cubic centimeter; while the poorest bloating shale, Brallier, bloated from 2.448 to 2.389 grams per cubic centimeter. In a firing test on tour types of whale, weathered and non-weathered Liberty Hall and non-weathered Martinsburg and Brallier, it was determined that only 12.5 percent of the total bloating occurred in the temperature range between 70 and 1900 °F, while 87.5 percent occurred in the temperature range from 1900 to 2200 °F. In firing tests using non-weathered Liberty Hall shale it vu found that no additional bloating occurred after prolonged heating at 2050 °F for forty-five minutes. This was indicated by no change in the bulk densities of the fired and unfired test specimens. Additional firing tests using specimens of non-weathered Liberty Hall. shale indicated that a rapid firing schedule was conductive to good bloating. The specimens showed bulk densities of 0.524 and 0.623 gram per cubic centimeter when heated to 2050 °F in twenty minutes and one hour and forty-five minutes, respectively. Weathered and non-weathered MacCrady shale showed no bloating tendencies at the temperatures used. in this investigation. The densities of cinder concrete and bloating shale concrete were 93.47 and 114.3 pounds per cubic foot, respectively. The densities of these materials compare favorably with ordinary sand and gravel concrete which weighs approximately 145 pounds per cubic foot. / Master of Science

Various analytical, semi-analytical, and empirical models have been proposed to characterize rate and pressure behavior as a function of time in tight/shale gas systems featuring a horizontal well with multiple hydraulic fractures. Despite a small number of analytical models and published numerical studies there is currently little consensus regarding the large-scale flow behavior over time in such systems. The purpose of this work is to construct a fit-for-purpose numerical simulator which will account for a variety of production features pertinent to these systems, and to use this model to study the effects of various parameters on flow behavior. Specific features examined in this work include hydraulically fractured horizontal wells, multiple porosity and permeability fields, desorption, and micro-scale flow effects. The theoretical basis of the model is described in Chapter I, along with a validation of the model. We employ the numerical simulator to examine various tight gas and shale gas systems and to illustrate and define the various flow regimes which progressively occur over time. We visualize the flow regimes using both specialized plots of rate and pressure functions, as well as high-resolution maps of pressure distributions. The results of this study are described in Chapter II. We use pressure maps to illustrate the initial linear flow into the hydraulic fractures in a tight gas system, transitioning to compound formation linear flow, and then into elliptical flow. We show that flow behavior is dominated by the fracture configuration due to the extremely low permeability of shale. We also explore the possible effect of microscale flow effects on gas effective permeability and subsequent gas species fractionation. We examine the interaction of sorptive diffusion and Knudsen diffusion. We show that microscale porous media can result in a compositional shift in produced gas concentration without the presence of adsorbed gas. The development and implementation of the micro-flow model is documented in Chapter III. This work expands our understanding of flow behavior in tight gas and shale gas systems, where such an understanding may ultimately be used to estimate reservoir properties and reserves in these types of reservoirs.