Shale gas

Shale gas is produce from shale. Shale gas has become an increasingly more important source of natural gas in the United States over the past decade, and interest has spread to potential gas shales in Canada and Europe. Analysts expect shale gas to supply half the natural gas production in North America by 2020.Shale gas is one of a number of “unconventional” sources of natural gas; other unconventional sources of natural gas include coalbed methane, tight sandstones, and methane hydrates. Shale gas areas are often known resource plays (as opposed to exploration plays). The geological risk of not finding petro9leum is low in resource plays, but the potential profits per well are usually also lower.Shale has low matrix permeability, so gas production in commercial quantities requires fractures to provide permeability. Shale gas has been produces for years from shales with natural fractures; the shale gas boom in recent years has been due to modern technology in hydraulic fracturing to create extensive artificial fractures around well bores.Shales that host economic quantities of gas have a number of common properties. To date, almost all successful shale gas wells have been in rocks of Paleozoic age, but shales of other ages are being evaluated, particularly in Cretaceous shales in Rocky Mt. basins. The prices required to make drilling and producing shale gas economic are different for each shale area.