Each workshop opened with a presentation by a representative of NETL summarizing the DOE perspective on the role of unconventional gas in meeting U.S demand, and highlighting past cooperative efforts in technology development that have led to increases in unconventional gas production. Following that, a guest speaker provided additional thoughts regarding the role of unconventional gas and the need for new technology to successfully develop additional production. After these presentations, which typically occupied less than an hour, the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) led a brainstorming session directed toward identifying technologies needs that could have a significant impact on unconventional gas production. Ideas were generated and recorded for 90 minutes to two hours. During a subsequent break, the ideas were consolidated into a smaller number of non-overlapping concepts that could be prioritized by the group. These concepts were discussed among the workshop participants prior to voting to assure that the consolidated list captured the results of the brainstormed list.

The concepts were prioritized through a voting process. Each participant was given five votes, which could all be given to one research concept, or distributed as desired amongst the various topics. The votes for industry and non-industry participants were recorded separately. Following the voting process, the results were summarized and discussed with the group.
Abbreviated Workshop Summaries

At each of the workshops, a theme emerged in terms of a key driver that would improve industry’s ability to economically develop unconventional gas. In Houston, the need for more basic research directed toward understanding the fundamental factors that control production of unconventional gas was identified. The need to do a better job collecting and making available data associated with unconventional gas production was emphasized at the Golden workshop. In Pittsburgh, the group emphasized the need for a better understanding of the reservoir. Each of these sessions also identified and prioritized a number of other important areas for unconventional gas technology investment.
Workshop Summary [PDF-1736KB].

Abbreviated Workshop Summaries
Houston | Golden | Pittsburgh

Houston workshop - July 19, 2005

Unconventional Natural Gas Challenges - Brainstorming Session - Houston

• Support entrepreneurial efforts that provide innovative technology
• Support fundamental research versus application driven
• The independent producer needs assurance that gas can be sold. Infrastructure must allow revenue in short period.
• Improved access to pipelines/infrastructure
• Last-mile transportation, to provide a revenue stream prior to infrastructure development
• On-site electrical power generation – do solutions exist?
• Portable or small scale LNG
• Promote the application of novel but existing solutions
• Public investment to share risk of new technology applications
• Impact of technology on economics – e.g. apply seismic to increase SEC bookable reserves
• Understanding unconventional “Basin-centered” gas – what are the issues?
• Finding, evaluation or production?
• Value of resource-based studies. Appropriate for public funding?
• How are resource assessments tied to economics?
• Why are we not working in Basin X? Answer this question for all basins.
• Increase recovery from each resource
• Why has increased drilling not led to increased production – focus on smaller targets?
• Reduce production and development cost. Need more information for good investment decisions.
• Reduce the cost to evaluate unconventional gas resources.
• Technology to develop reserves with fewer wells
• Accumulate and evaluate Best Practices.
• Best Practices versus Optimum Practices - Is the best that we are doing really the best that can be done?
• Provide a place and approach to test new technologies
• Evaluation to assist in the commercialization of new technologies
• Accelerate the learning curve associated with application of technology – new or in new resources
• Study programs like MWX to determine the metrics for a successful program

• Entrepreneurial Support - Support entrepreneurial efforts that provide innovative technology
• Infrastructure Development - Development of infrastructure for gas production and distribution in frontier areas
• Basic Research - Basic research leading to a fundamental understanding of the properties of unconventional gas reservoirs, and how those properties drive optimum exploration and production approaches
• Quantify Impact of Technology – Studies assessing the economic impact of new technology development and application
• Technology Transfer
• Field-Based Testing – Large-scale controlled field experiments such as the DOE Multi-Well Experiments (MWX) and the GRI cooperative Staged Field Experiments (SFE)
• Personnel Training and Development
• R&D Monitoring/Research Coordination
• Best Practices – Identify and disseminate the Best Practices for E&P operations in various unconventional gas resources
• Test Site – Support the operation of facilities such as the Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center (RMOTC) for the evaluation of new technologies
• Resource Characterization – Detailed studies of specific unconventional gas resources to determine the reasons why certain practices are successful or unsuccessful. The goal is to develop an understanding sufficient to apply knowledge to new reservoirs without extensive trial and error to develop best practices
• External Technology - Application of advanced technology from other industries
• Consortium Sponsorship – Leverage research funds by participating in consortia

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Golden workshop - August 9, 2005

Unconventional Natural Gas Challenges - Brainstorming Session - Golden

• Predictability of results from completion/stimulation operations
• Understanding natural fractures – location, orientation and effect on reservoir properties
• Defining ways to achieve effective public/private partnerships
• Water issues in the Greater Green River Basin (treatment and/or disposal)
• Coalbed methane in “deeper” zones
• Moving known “gas-in-place” into “reserves”
• Increasing confidence in gas-in-place estimates
• Basin-scale petroleum systems studies
• Pay for, collect and analyze data that operators would not otherwise collect.
• Build an electronic database of existing “paper” data collected through past programs at DOE, GTI and elsewhere
• Refine gas-in-place, technically recoverable resource, economically recoverable resource, reserves and production estimates, including uncertainty. Collect the required data and develop the methodology
• Improve production estimates to define well life
• Develop advanced well construction, such as the pinnate method, for a better connection to the reservoir
• Develop a more meaningful definition of “net pay”
• Develop methodology and tools for sophisticated 3-D petrophysical reservoir modeling, leading to better prediction of production
• Improve understanding of formation damage from drilling, completion and stimulation
• Sharing “Best Practices”
• Conduct basin-wide systems studies in unconventional gas basins. Develop a model explaining existing well data that can be updated as new wells are drilled. Develop a means to collect and assimilate data from individual operators
• Improve understanding and predictability of the quality of 3-D seismic results
• Conduct source rock studies
• Conduct gas analysis to tie production to the source system
• Collect/analyze data from majors and other operators to avoid permanent loss
• Provide access to data for all, including small independents
• Concentrate on work that will impact supply in long-term
• Database of “Best Practices” to prevent re-inventing the wheel
• Encourage true exploration, in new areas and/or with new play concepts
• Collect data from research consortia
• Update and expand regional and resource-focused atlases
• Influence public policy regarding data collection and availability
• Improve the dissemination of technology, for example, application shallow gas technology from Canada to the Appalachians
• Basic research, for example, DOE’s Multi-Well Experiments (MWX) projects
• Longer term research to fill in the gaps identified by data studies
• Metrics, communication, industry input and accountability for basic research
• Move toward the Canadian model for data collection and accessibility
• Make “raw data” on research projects more available, in addition to published research reports that focus on the analysis of the data

• Basin-Scale Petroleum Systems Studies - Identify source rocks, migration pathways, timing of petroleum generation and migration, reservoir history and other factors controlling petroleum accumulation basin-wide.
• Data Collection and Availability – Develop a system to improve access to data collected by operators. The Canadian model where operators are required to submit data to the government after a period of time is one approach. Applications include data mining, basin studies, defining knowledge gaps, avoiding the loss of legacy information and ensuring the value associated with future work.
• Predictability of Production – Understand the effects of natural fractures and formation damage. Develop tools for 3-D reservoir modeling that allow prediction of production.
• Advanced Well Construction – Examples include fishbone drilling patterns, more efficient drilling in hard rocks, improved hydraulic fracturing and stimulation, and methodologies to better link engineering design of wells to reservoir characteristics.
• Field-Based Testing – Large-scale controlled field experiments such as the DOE Multi-Well Experiments (MWX) and the GRI cooperative Staged Field Experiments (SFE).
• Resource Assessment – Evaluate basins throughout the U.S. for gas-in-place, technically recoverable resource, economically recoverable resource, reserves, and the probabilities associated with these estimates.
• Best Practices – Identify and disseminate the Best Practices for E&P operations in various unconventional gas resources.
• Technology Transfer
• Environmental and Land Access – Develop technological solutions or policy initiatives that improve access to prospective unconventional gas resources. Technological challenges include produced water handling, reducing well footprint, development with fewer wells and other initiatives that reduce the environmental impact of unconventional gas development.
• Basin-Scale Petroleum Systems Studies - Identify source rocks, migration pathways, timing of petroleum generation and migration, reservoir history and other factors controlling petroleum accumulation basin-wide.

Prioritization votes - Golden

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Pittsburgh workshop - August 25, 2005

Unconventional Natural Gas Challenges - Brainstorming Session - Pittsburgh

• Conduct resource assessments
• Evaluation of unconventional vs. conventional gas resources
• Perform retrospective studies on the impact of past innovations that enabled new resource development
• Characterization of shale gas plays, such as Antrim, Big Sandy and Barnett. Why do they work, and how can the knowledge gained be applied elsewhere?
• Characterize resources and plays in detail to allow successful methods to be applied in analogous resources
• Unique environmental factors affecting development in the eastern U.S., including such things as wine tourism and resistance to drilling off the east coast
• Improve access to resources
• Quantify currently inaccessible resources nationwide, not just in the Rockies.
• Evaluate the impact of development regulations on unconventional gas production (e.g. 70 acre spacing for shales in New York State and offshore drilling bans)
• Infrastructure development, including alternatives to pipelines such as small-scale LNG and gas-to-liquids
• Address the constraints on gas production due to rig capacity and manpower.
• Develop personnel and intellectual capital
• Support for college expenses of Petroleum Engineering and Earth Science majors
• Support E&P related university programs
• Encourage geoscience and geology students to pursue E&P careers
• Develop technology and knowledge to increase recovery from existing resources
• Improve our understanding of energy economics; is the business truly cyclical?
• Determine the correct spacing for producing each formation
• Develop better tools for reservoir description and prediction of production
• Lower the cost for reservoir evaluation
• Methodologies to improve the ability to describe and predict production
• Study currently undeveloped resources, such as coalbed methane in Pennsylvania anthracites. Characterize the resource and determine possible development approaches
• Improve methods for produced water treatment and handling
• Develop stimulation methods to improve the performance of marginal wells
• Determine the optimal treatments for a given formation
• Optimize drilling and completion practices to avoid formation damage
• Perform basic studies to answer questions such as “Why must Devonian shale be acidized before hydraulic fracturing?”
• Accumulate and publish “Best Practices”
• Compile information such as core, drill cuttings, well logs and drilling and production data and make it available to industry in appropriate databases integrated with GIS
• Improve horizontal drilling and completion technology
• Develop a model for predicting production from horizontal wells that will allow an appropriate economic decision regarding their use
• Address factors such as high steel prices
• Evaluate possible alternatives to high-quality sand for proppants
• Improved methods for determining the vertical intervals producing in a well
• Develop a national gas production database, formation and basin focused and integrated with GIS
• Improve gas dehydration and processing technology
• Develop technologies to re-work old wells (e.g. re-completing bypassed zones)

• Resource Assessment - Conduct Resource Assessments to identify new resources to target (includes the evaluation of existing resources, as well as new resources that are not currently under development, such as coalbed methane in Pennsylvania anthracite beds)
• Impact of Past Innovations - Perform retrospective studies on the impact of past innovations that enabled new resource development
• Reservoir/Resource/Play Characterization – Develop a fundamental understanding of the factors controlling reserves and production in a reservoir and apply the knowledge to the development of new resources
• Access to Resources – Address the unique environmental factors impacting natural gas development in the eastern U.S. and provide quantitative estimates of the size of the resource base restricted from development nationwide
• Production Prediction and Optimization – Develop a methodology to determine the optimum development strategy for a particular reservoir, including well spacing, well construction and treatment and stimulation
• Infrastructure – Develop means to economically produce “stranded” gas
• Manpower Development – Increase the pool of E&P expertise through support of universities and encouragement of E&P careers
• Energy Economics – Address the prediction of energy prices and develop an understanding of the potentially cyclic nature of the energy business
• Produced Water – Improve methods for produced water treatment and handling.
• Stimulation Technology
• Best Practices - Identify and disseminate the Best Practices for E&P operations in various unconventional gas resources
• Database Compilation – Compile E&P data into a nationwide database compatible with GIS systems and widely available to industry; develop and apply data mining methods to extract information from such a database
• Operational Limitations – Address operational limitations such as steel prices, sand (proppant) availability and drilling rig availability
• Gas Processing
• Re-working Old Wells – Develop methods for getting additional production from old wells, such as identifying and re-completing bypassed zones

Prioritization votes - Pittsburgh

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Workshop Attendees

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