Department Of Energy Laboratories Awarded Six Research Projects To Advance Shale Research

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has awarded six research projects to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories to advance fundamental shale research. The two-year projects will investigate challenges associated with the production of low-viscosity oil from tight shale formations.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory will use experimental and computational tools to investigate the hydraulic fracture process in order to improve oil and gas production from shale formations. The results of the work should yield a better understanding of shale fracture properties, hydraulic fracture performance, and methods to specifically target features within the fracture systems to improve production. Sandia National Laboratories will build on previous research to further define component interaction and flow in shale pores. This will then be used to develop a fluid model for gas release and recovery from shale formations. The new model will be combined with an existing simulation tool for the prediction of oil and gas production from shale reservoirs. The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center National Accelerator Laboratory will investigate how hydraulic fracturing fluids induce damaged zones in shale formations. These zones are associated with reduced flow and recovery of oil and gas. The results of this work will provide a better understanding of the interaction of fracture fluids from shale, leading to the optimization of fracture fluid compositions and exposure times based on shale properties.