Investigations into devonian shale gas production mechanisms in southern Ohio

Economic gas production from the Devonian Shale requires permeable pathways combined with matrix storage. These pathways may include fractures, bedding planes or silt layers. The Gas Research Institute is sponsoring a research project to evaluate the relationships these geologic features and productive gas flows have with the eventual aim of developing better exploration, stimulation and production strategies. This study will investigate wells throughout the basin, with a wide range of potential productivity in order to determine what variations in geology result in marginal versus good producers. As a first phase of this project, detailed data on the geology and reservoir parameters are being collected on four wells in southern Ohio, which are being recompleted in the Devonian Shale. Two additional wells have been investigated in a pilot study, the remainder are currently under investigation.