Unconventional Gas Group
In line with the Australian Government’s effort to make sure that the future energy needs are met, Petroleum Engineering established a new scientific research group to investigate about the potential unconventional resources in Western Australia. Currently the major concentration of UGRG group members is on the evaluation of potential gas shale layers located in Perth Basin and Canning Basin.
The UGRG is led by Professor Reza Rezaee, the lead scientist for the WA: ERA (EIS) Tight Gas and Shale Gas research project. Our team operates a Shale Gas Consortium brings different partners from industry and WA state government to support research activities related to potential gas shale layers in WA. The main goal of this consortium is to study gas shale layers and locate intervals with the higher potential for gas production (sweet spot mapping).
Global natural gas consumption is projected to grow 52%, an increase of nearly 2% annually from about 108 tcf in 2008 to about 163 tcf in 2030.
Considering this high demand, energy production from conventional reservoirs would be extremely difficult in near future. The three most common unconventional resources are tight sands, coal bed methane (CBM), and gas shales. Although historically it has been too difficult and uneconomical to produce, as energy prices rise and a shift from coal to gas energy sources is experienced, tight gas and gas shale are now being viewed as alternative resources with great potential.
Tight Gas
- Evaluating factors controlling damage and productivity in tight gas reservoirs
- Geological reservoir modelling for Whicher Range Field tight gas sand
- Fracture productivity performance assessment for tight gas sands
- Core flooding Simulation for tight gas sands
- Field scale production performance
- Study of pore size distribution using NMR for Whicher Range Field, Perth Basin
- Well testing interpretation for hydraulically fractured tight gas wells using second derivative method
- Pore network modelling of tight gas sands using image analysis technique
Shale Gas
- Sensitivity analysis of seismic response to the fluid content of shale gas
- Organic geochemistry evaluation of candidate shale gas in Perth and Canning Basins
- Application of intelligent systems for shale gas evaluation
- Fluid flow mechanisms of shale gas reservoirs
- Reservoir modelling of shale gas reservoirs
