Publications

Shale plays are an extremely difficult arena in which to explore because they are all different. While general lessons can be translated from play to play there are important differences which control exploration and development decisions. Due to the heterogeneity of resource plays they can even differ within a single field. This means that effectual development of shale plays requires extensive evaluation and coordination of various data sources such as geology, geophysics, geomechanics, petrophysics, and engineering. (Durham, 2012). However, while these conventional disciplines bring a wealth of important data to the discussion, one important data set is often lacking – namely hydrocarbon data. Additionally, given the current price of gas, it becomes paramount for technologies to emerge that can correctly characterize liquid rich areas in a field and differentiate these from gas portions of the play. This is particularly true in the Utica shale.