DE-FC26-05NT42661

Goal
The project will develop an atlas of reservoir data that industry will be able to apply to development of Devonian sandstone reservoirs in the Appalachian Basin.

Performer
West Virginia University Research Corporation, Morgantown, WV

Results
The historic resource characterization efforts funded through NETL have included Devonian shale, Trenton Black River dolomite, and an overall assessment of Appalachian reservoirs that the petroleum industry has utilized to develop more gas resources in the eastern United States.

Benefits
The project will continue providing reservoir characterization data for industry application in developing new and deeper gas resources in the Appalachian Basin, resulting in increased knowledge and efficiencies that will boost domestic gas supplies while reducing environmental impacts with fewer wells drilled.

Background
The atlas of Devonian sandstone reservoirs for the Appalachian Basin is a continuing effort by NETL to assist industry in the development of new gas resources for the United States. Petroleum industry interest in deeper horizons of the Appalachian Basin has strengthened lately due to the fact that gas production has been almost solely from shallow horizons. Less than 5 percent of the wells drilled are deeper than 7,500 feet in a basin that is over 20,000 feet deep. The potential gas resource is close to eastern customers and pipeline infrastructure that make exploration and development feasible at current gas prices. The project will use the latest in geographic information systems technology for access to the data, once the data are compiled for the Devonian sandstone formations, and will make it easy to access via a website.

Summary
The current effort continues to be data acquisition and scanning. The effort to scan all of the well logs and core reports related to the tight gas sand reservoirs in the Appalachian Basin is progressing at a steady pace. Several core samples from previous DOE research projects were sent to the West Virginia Geological Survey for use in the project. During the onsite archival project of past unconventional gas programs, a number of boxes of well logs have also been located and shipped to the survey for the current project.

Current Status (February 2008)
The West Virginia University Research Corporation in collaboration with the State Geological Survey and the Appalachian Oil and Natural Gas Research Consortium ( AONGRC) is preparing an Atlas of tight reservoir gas sands of the Appalachian basin for the new gas resources of United States.

Researchers have collected, digitized and interpreted geological, geophysical and reservoir data and prepared various reservoir maps.

The remaining new gas reserve in the basin is estimated in the 20-25 TCF range. The understanding of the selected tight gas accumulation in the basin will foster the exploration and production activities for the untapped huge gas reserve. The information of data will be available to producers and public through an interactive geospatial model on the internet.

Publications
The technical evaluation review was prepared with an effort to develop an estimate of the impact of the project on the petroleum industry and identify the utility of the reservoir characterization database.

Project Start: September 27, 2005
Project End: September 30, 2008

Anticipated DOE Contribution: $566,729
Performer Contribution: $246,280 (30 percent of total)

Contact Information
NETL – Virginia Weyland (virginia.weyland@netl.doe.gov or 918-699-2041)
WVU Research Corp. – Douglas G. Patchen (dpatch@wvunrcce.wvu or 304-293-2867)