Unconventional Petroleum

Resources

Eng. Mufazzal. S. Kabuli

Learning Outcome

• What are Unconventional Resources?

• Types of Unconventional Resources

Introduction

• Petroleum Geologist is Largely concerned with

exploring for crude oil and natural gas

• Vast amount of energy is however locked up in what

may loosely be described as Unconventional
petroleum resources
What are Unconventional Petroleum Resources?
• Unconventional formations are fine-grained, organic-rich, sedimentary rocks—
usually shales and similar rocks.

• The shales are rocks acting as both the source rock as well as the reservoir rock for oil
and natural gas unlike conventional petroleum reservoirs.

• The Society of Petroleum Engineers describes “unconventional resources” as

petroleum accumulations that are “tight formations.”

• Although the unconventional formations may be as porous as other sedimentary

reservoir rocks, their extremely small pore sizes and lack of permeability make them
relatively resistant to hydrocarbon flow.
pore size not pore volume
• In contrast, conventional oil and natural gas deposits occur in porous and permeable
sandstone and carbonate reservoirs.
Types of Unconventional Resources
• Different types of non conventional petroleum
resources includes:
1. Tar sands
2. Oil Shale
3. Shale Gas
4. Coal Bed Methane
Tar Sands – What is it?
• Heavy Viscous Oil Deposits occur near earth’s
surface in many parts of the world having API
gravity ranging from 5 to 15

• They typically occur in highly porous sands and

are referred to as TAR SANDS
tar sand is unconventional because of the fluid it self not
the rock because the viscosity of the oil is very high
Tar Sands – Composition
• Physically – Tar sands are much more heavy and
more viscous

• Chemically – They tend to contain more inorganic

impurities

• Sulphur content in Oil sand varies from 0.5% to 5%

 Open cast mining then
using solvents to dissolve
the oil or
Tar Sands – Extraction using heat or thermal
flooding to reduce the
viscosity of the oil
Tar Sands – Extraction
• Figure 9.11 shows major methods for
extracting heavy oil

• when overburden is too thick conventional

open cast mining can be adopted

• Once Tar sands have been quarried, oil must

be extracted
Tar Sands – Extraction process
• Basically two types of Extraction process are
used:

1. Injection of Solvent to dissolve Oil

2. Reduce Oil Viscosity by Heating
Oil Shale – What is It?
• Oil shale is a fine grained sedimentary rock
that yields oil on heating

• It differs from tar sands as it differs in grain

size
Oil Shale – Extraction
• Like Tar Sands there exists 2 methods to win
oil from shale:

1. Treating Shale which is quarried at the surface

2. Underground in situ extraction
1. Treating Shale which is quarried at the surface
• It involves Open case quarrying of shale

• Shale is crushed and heated using various sources of heat

• As shale is heated in range of 425 to 475 Degrees C, Oil and

gas are driven off by pyrolysis of Kerogen.

• Oil obtained can be refined.

2. Underground in situ extraction
• In situ method is rather different

• Closely Spaced Shallow boreholes are drilled into oil

shale

• Heating elements are inserted and rock temperature

is raised to 400 degree C within the well

• The oil thus generated is pumped from the wells

Shale Gas – What is It?
• As the name says, Gas produced from organic rich
black shales is called shale gas

• Gas in shales occurs in irregular fracture systems

• This gas is of high calorific value with more than 10%

ethane
Shale Gas Production
• Shale Gas wells are hardly 700m deep and are cheap
to drill

• After initial high pressure, well head pressure

stabilize at 300 to 500 psi with flow rates of 50 to 100
thousand cubic feet of gas per day

• An individual well may produce for 40 to 50 years.

Advantages of Shale Gas Production
• Shale gas is highly suitable energy source when located
near town, school, farms, hospital or universities

• Shale gas has negligible environmental impact

• There is no flaring

• No long distance pipelines have to be built across

countryside
Problems associated with Shale Gas Production
• Shale gas production is not profitable for major
international oil companies for various reasons:

1. Reserves are too small

2. Payout time is too long
Coal Bed Methane – What is It?
• As the name says, it is the occurrence of methane
gas in coal seams.

• Coal beds have more permeability than shales

because they can fracture more easily either
naturally or artificially.
Methane Generating Potential
• Parameters that control methane generating
potential of a coal include:

1. Coal rank
2. Ash content
3. Matrix porosity
4. Fracture porosity
5. Pressure
6. Water content
Problems Associated with CBM
1. Extensive ventilation is required to extract
methane from working coal mines to
minimize fire hazard

2. CBM has low calorific value as compared to

shale gas