Property of interest

Core data

Log data

Porosity

Crushed dry rock

He porosimetry

Density (mostly)

TOC

LECO or RockEval

GR, density, resistivity

Water saturation

As-received retort
or Dean-Stark

Resistivity + kerogen
corrected porosity

Mineralogy

XRD, FTIR, XRF

Density, neutron, Pe,

ECS-type logs

Permeability

Pulse decay on
crushed rock

This is tough

Geomechanics

Static moduli

DTC, DTS, RHOB, &

synthetic substitutes

Geochemistry

Ro, S1-S2-S3, etc.

Resistivity (sort of)

Porosity first
How much storage volume is there for free

gas (or oil)?

Saturation next
Can we estimate Sw in shales?

Then Permeability
Is there sufficient permeability to flow gas, or

better yet oil?

GIP & oil-in-place last

solid matrix

moveable fluids

non-mov.
fluids

Simplified
Rock

nonmoveable
fluids

porosity

residual
HC

free
water

hydrocarbons

hydrocarbons

residual
HC

water
capillary-bound

OH

clay&
OH-

water

matrix
quartz, feldspar, etc.

water

claybound

Clastic
Components

grains

dry clay

Clastic
Rock

mud, silt

porosity

Effective porosity, Phie

Solidity, 1 - Phit

Total porosity, Phit

Grain volume

water

gas, oil

Free water

kerogen

OH

clay &
OH-

porosity
water

quartz, carbonate,
pyrite, etc.

Bulk volume hydrocarbon

claybound

Organic Shale
Components

mineral matrix

dry clay

Organic
Shale

Bulk volume water

kerogen

Porosity

gas, oil

In organic shales, TOC looks like

porosity to a density log
Density of organic matter is close to that
of water or oil

Ranges from 0.9 to 1.4 g/c3 in our

experience
Common default value is 1.3 or 1.35 g/c3

Consequence: density porosity is too

high and needs to be corrected down

Estimate from GR or density log

Estimate from deltaLogR (sonic-resistivity
overlay method)
Run a specialty log to get a kerogen-free
grain density, and compare to total
grain density from density-neutron log
Get it from cores

TOC (v/v) = (gray sh

TOC (v/v) = (GRgray

b) / 1.378
sh GR)/(1.378 * A)

TOC (v/v) = WTOC * RHOb/RHOTOC

(1979 eqn)
(1981 eqn)

New Albany Shale, Illinois basin

EGSP cores (1976-1979), all big blue logs
18

total organic carbon (wt %)

16
14
12
10
8
6
4

Published Schmoker
relation

2
0
2.0

2.1

2.2

2.3

2.4

2.5

Bulk density (g/cm3)

2.6

2.7

2.8

2.9

Basically a sonic F overlay

Two universal eqns published by Passey
et al. (1990, AAPG Bull)

logR = log10 (R/Rbl) + 0.02 (T-Tbl)

This defines deltaLogR
TOC = logR * 10^(2.297 0.1688 LOM)
This relates deltaLogR to TOC (wt%)

Most of us are concerned about the

LOM parameter, but the second two
constants were empirically determined

Passey et al, 2010, SPE 131350

TOC (wt %) = logR * 10^(2.297 0.1688*LOM)

Passey et al, 1990,
AAPG 74 (12) 1777-1794

Deterministic suite
of regression
eqns to compute
mineral volumes
and kerogen-free
grain density

RhoMecs = a + b Si + c (Ca,Na) + d (Fe,Al )+ e S

Not as simple as standard density

porosity determination
We need TWO grain densities,

Density of the inorganic mineral matrix

Density of the organic fraction (a.k.a.

kerogen density or TOC density)

And, we need to estimate the fluid

density in the flushed zone (where the
density log makes its measurement)

=
b hcT (1 S wT ) + wT S wT + ma (1 T VTOC ) + TOCVTOC

ma b (1 WTOC + WTOC * ma / TOC )

T =
ma fl

Sondergeld et al, 2010, SPE 131768

Intercept at 0% porosity gives

RhoMa inorganic = 2.76 g/c3

New Albany example

2.72 b (1 WTOC + WTOC * 2.72 / TOC )
T =
2.72 fl

Use core measured porosity, RhoB, and

Wtoc to solve for RhoTOC
RhoFl requires assumption about gas

saturation and gas density at in-situ

conditions

Full solution for porosity

m b (1 WTOC + WTOC * m / TOC )
T =
m fl

TOC corrected
porosity

Convert Wtoc to volume of TOC using an

assumed RhoTOC
Vtoc = Wtoc / toc * b

Subtract Vtoc from density porosity to get

a rough kerogen-corrected shale
porosity

Most of us compute saturation from the

conventional Archie approach
Requires total porosity, resistivity, Rw, m, n
We will probably NEVER be able to measure

m and n
We have no assurance these rocks act like
Archie or shaly sand systems

Calibrate a log model to as-received

core saturations
Best data we have for in-situ Sw
Rw in shale is a guess
Usually assume an m and n, often 2 or

sometimes less

Remarkably, we can usually fit the core

data without doing anything too
stupid.

GR

porosity

Sw

TOC

Perm is a can of worms

We are not very confident we can
measure shale perms in core, but its the
best we have for now
Log models for perm are weak at best

Most use phi-K correlation based on core

D&A clean dry hole

No gas or oil flowed back after frac,
45% of load recovered, well dead (0 psi TP).
Swabbed small blows of gas over 12 days.

Two components
Free gas or compression gas
Adsorbed gas

There is also some absorbed gas

dissolved in kerogen or bitumen, but the
way we calibrate the adsorption model
this is inside the other number

Need to know porosity, saturation, & h:

=
GIP C * A h *(1 S w ) / Bg
where C is a units constant, A is area, f is porosity, h is
thickness, Sw is water saturation, & Bg is the formation
volume factor

High pressure, high porosity, high Sg, and

large A
greater GIP

Adsorption is a surface phenomena

Characterized by adsorption isotherms:

=
Gc VL * P / ( P + PL )
Where Gc is the adsorbed gas content (scf/ton)
VL is the Langmuir volume (scf/ton)
PL is the Langmuir pressure (psia)

Gab = 1359.7 * Ah bGc

Where Gab is the adsorbed gas-in-place (scf), A is area in acres,
h is thickness in ft, b is bulk density, and Gc is the average
adsorbed gas content in scf/ton

160

140

15.50

120

13.70

100

12.64

80

10.44

60

8.80
8.21

Barnett Shale example

7.25

40

3.55

20

0
0

200

400

600

800

1000

Pressure (psi)

1200

1400

1600

1800

250

Langmuir volume (scf/ton)

Gas content (scf/ton)

TOC

200
150
100
50
0
0

10

12

Total organic carbon (%)

14

16

18

Kerogen is highly adsorptive

Wet clays are minimally adsorptive
Quartz, calcite, dolomite: adsorption is nil

Compute free gas

Compute adsorbed gas
Correct for volume of free gas occupied
by adsorbed gas (SPE 131772)
Add em up
NGLs and condensate are calculated
from the GOR

Assume a vertical well tests 10 ft of a low

porosity zone at 2 BOPD.
Well go horizontal in that zone and drill
5,000 to 10,000 ft laterally
Kh scales with contacted interval, so we
expect 500 1000X the flow capacity
Real world = not that good. Not all of
the lateral contributes equally.

You can calculate porosity and

saturations in shales; they make sense
and match core data
The apparent density porosity is too high
in the presence of TOC
Dont try to just eyeball it, there are too
many moving parts

Log analysis on the hood of a Chevy does

not work well in shales

Questions??