Thermal Maturity, Composition, and Origin of the Hydrocarbon Gases of the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas, USA
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Date
2017-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
The Eagle Ford Shale, a high-growth and profitable developing play, locates mainly in South Texas. Even though it has been actively developed for about 9 years, to reduce industrial exploitation risk, properties of the fluids in the Eagle Ford Shale still need to be studied. In this research, samples of oil and associated gases collected from 27 hydraulically fractured horizontal commercial wells were analyzed for major gas compositions and stable carbon isotopic ratios to characterize the natural gases of the Eagle Ford Shale.
The experimental data suggest that natural gases of the Eagle Ford Shale are thermogenic, oil-associated wet gas in early stage of thermal maturity for four reasons: 1) large amount of ethane and heavier aliphatic hydrocarbons (0.11≤C2+/C1≤1.4); 2) the stable carbon isotopic composition of methane and ethane (-48<13C1 (‰)<-36 and -36.7<13C2 (‰)<-33.93); 3)vitrinite reflectance values (0.61<Ro<0.96) calculated from carbon isotope ratios of methane and ethane using two individual equations developed by Whiticar et al., 1994; 4) the sublinear nature of Chung Plot.
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Keywords
Eagle Ford Shale, Thermal Maturity, Hydrocarbon Origin, Oil and Gas Composition