In this paper, the author present a practical assessment of petrophysical properties of shales

and their measurement in the lab and via logs. It shows that there is a lack of gas shale standards where
there are no standardized lab methods specific to shale gas systems that provides detailed protocol
documentation. The author also discussed why rock properties are important in shale gas systems and
identified some issues with petrophysical lab measurements.

For the methods, the paper focused on three reservoir assessment categories: storage capacity,
flow capacity, and mechanical properties impacting hydraulic simulation. Within each of these
categories, the author have identified influential petrophysical properties such as rock properties, total
organic carbon (TOC) content, porosity, saturation, permeability, and mechanical properties. The paper
demonstrated the importance of estimating accurate mineral and kerogen content as these properties
directly impact rock quality, hydraulic fracturing protocols, and gas-in-place estimations.

From the paper, it is found that the analysis of flow capacity and gas in place requires calibration
for TOC, mineralogy, porosity, and permeability. The TOC method is applicable to gas shales through the
use of a multiplier. Given the core date to calibrate conventional porosity, clay volume, and predicted
TOC logs can be used in a probabilistic log analysis routine that accurately computes mineralogy. The
author have also identified several factors that can compromise porosity measurements including non-
removal of water and residual hydrocarbons, gas pore access problems, and gas adsorption. The
preferred method of porosity measurement includes using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to remove
pore water and residual hydrocarbons while retaining the organic carbon and solid mineral phases along
with clay bound water. We must also ensure all crushed rock material is conserved during the grain
volume measurement. Measurement of saturation has been shown to be highly dependent upon the
accuracy and precision of making bulk density and grain density measurements on crushed rock. Errors
made early in the testing workflow will propagate throughout the entire dataset. Available data on
formation water salinity is sparse but existing data indicates that great variability exist over short vertical
distances which raises questions about Archie equation for making log-based water saturation
estimates.

I have learned a lot from this paper about the three assessment categories for a reservoir, the
storage capacity, flow capacity, and mechanical properties that impact hydraulic simulations, and also
the importance of petrophysical properties such as rock properties, total organic carbon (TOC) content,
porosity, saturation, permeability, and mechanical properties and the importance of estimating accurate
mineral and kerogen content as these properties directly impact rock quality, hydraulic fracturing
protocols, and gas-in-place estimations. Analysis of existing petrophysical data sets for gas shales
indicates that for simple engineering properties such as porosity, permeability and moduli the values
depend on the measurement protocol, technique, sample size, condition, and orientation. In order to
address these issues, we require a standardization for the measurements of petrophysical properties of
shales, which in class we concluded that it will be quite tough to achieve. Additionally, data sets are
incomplete due to a singular focus on a particular property. Because of the nature of shales,
characterization needs to be more inclusive and complete to interpret the petrophysical measurements.
Therefore, a standardized shale measurement technique is required.