ISBN-13: 9781119066682 / Angielski / Twarda / 2019 / 320 str.
Fundamental conceptual understanding and practical applications for successful subsurface science and engineering of shale is lacking. This volume will bring together a series of chapters from recognized experts from industry, academia, private research institutions, and national laboratories compiling of a state-of-the-art of current science and engineering practices involving this most enigmatic of rock types. This will include a basic overview of shale heterogeneity from nanometers to kilometers, the basic science of coupled multiphysics modelling of shale rock in the subsurface (i.e. flow, transport, geochemistry, geomechanics), and engineering practices associated with shale oil and gas extraction, seal integrity for carbon and other waste storage, and other shale-containing natural resources. The existing state of knowledge on shales will be surveyed and relevant research needs in relation to subsurface engineering endeavors will be organized for the coming decades. The timing has never been more opportune for a summary treatise on the subsurface science and engineering of shale; which is supported by several factors. New imaging techniques, including dual focused ion beam-scanning electron and neutron scattering methods, have emerged in the last five years that allow unprecedented internal three-dimensional views into shale pore network topologies and pore lining phases at previously unobtainable lengths scales (i.e. nanometers). Shales have always been considered as a major sealing lithology and source for oil and gas reservoirs. Inasmuch as these seals already existed for trapping hydrocarbons, and hydrocarbon generation and migration was mostly ancient history, interest in shale specifically as an engineering target was never a priority for the oil and gas industry. Industry was always more concerned with conventional sandstone and carbonate reservoirs that lie beneath the shales, and the shale formations themselves were mostly viewed as problematic from a drilling perspective and handled on a field-by-field basis. But recent occurrences have changed this perspective which is detailed in the key points below: