Viscosity of Shale Gas

Tran, Huy

Viscosity of Shale Gas

dc.contributor.advisor	Ahmad, Sakhaee-Pour
dc.contributor.author	Tran, Huy
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Mashhad, Fahs
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Zulfiquar, Reza
dc.date.accessioned	2017-08-12T18:05:28Z
dc.date.available	2017-08-12T18:05:28Z
dc.date.issued	2017
dc.date.manuscript	2017-07
dc.description.abstract	Unconventional energy resources, including coal beds, tight gas sands, and shales, have become an ever-increasing factor in the North American gas supply. In these formations, the basic transport properties of the fluids change as they typically travel through sub 100-nm pores, which falls into the field of nanofluidics. As production from shales became economically feasible, this field gained more interest in petroleum engineering. The purpose of the current study is to determine the effective gas viscosity of shale based on pore scale simulation. We consider methane (CH4), the main constituent of natural gas, as the only component of fluid system. We use an acyclic pore model to characterize the pore structure of a shale. The acyclic model represents the effective connectivity of pore space because it can capture drainage behavior from mercury injection measurements. We calculate the effective gas viscosity of the shale at different pore pressures, and present the results with respect to the nominal value, under unconfined conditions. Our analysis indicates that the reported permeability from pressure-driven flow measurement has to be considered an effective value, if nominal values of viscosity and density are used for interpretation. That is, we have to modify viscosity and permeability simultaneously in our reservoir model. The current study has a major impact on reservoir characterization based on standard lab measurements in shales.	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/11244/51907
dc.language	en_US	en_US
dc.subject	Shale, Effective gas viscosity, Acyclic pore model	en_US
dc.thesis.degree	Master of Science	en_US
dc.title	Viscosity of Shale Gas	en_US
ou.group	Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy::Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering	en_US