Datapages, Inc.Print this page

Click to view presentation in PDF format.

 

Developing a New Gas Resource in the Heart of the Northeastern U.S. Market:
New York’s Utica Shale Play*

John P. Martin1, Richard Nyahay2, James Leone2, and Langhorne B. Smith2


Search and Discovery Article #10160 (2008)

Posted December 15, 2008

 

*Adapted from oral presentation AAPG Convention, San Antonio, TX, April 20-23, 2008.

 

1NYSERDA, Albany, NY ([email protected])
2New York State Museum, Albany, NY

 

Abstract

After significant research, industry is now investing in leasing, exploratory drilling and modern completion methods for the Utica Shale. When developed, this play will represent the easternmost natural gas field in the USA. The prospective fairway includes 17 counties bounded by the Hudson River, the Finger Lakes, the Mohawk Valley and the Pennsylvania border. The Utica is a massive, fossiliferous, organic-rich, thermally-mature black to gray-black shale deposited in a subsiding trough that generally trended north-south. Source rock for the organic-rich black shale was supplied from the eroding Taconic highlands to the east. As the deep marine trough filled, the deposition of the lower members of the group onlapped westward over the carbonate platform. The Dolgeville, interpreted as a slope facies peripheral to the Trenton platform, interfingers with the basal Flat Creek black shale Member. The Flat Creek Member thickens considerably in the eastern half of New York, whereas the uppermost Indian Castle Member spreads widely across the Appalachian Basin. The exploration fairway has been defined through an analysis of cuttings and cores defining unit properties, Rock-Eval parameters S2, Tmax, HI (Hydrogen Index), and TR (Transformation Ratio). Current work shows that the Utica has TOC values between 1.5 and 3, and with higher original TOC. Fairways have been defined using a TR of 0.95. S2 values are low, suggesting that little live carbon remains, and most of the gas that could be generated has been adsorbed into the matrix. Current drilling activity to date has concentrated on the shallower northern areas but technical evidence supports much deeper drilling depths. Hydraulic fracture designs include the use of acid to take advantage of the high calcite component. Since this play is within the eastern gas market, producers can expect a sales price premium over NYMEX.

 

uAbstract

uFigures

uExploration & production

uTrenton play

uFairways

uConclusions

uAcknowledgements

uReferences

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

uAbstract

uFigures

uExploration & production

uTrenton play

uFairways

uConclusions

uAcknowledgements

uReferences

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

uAbstract

uFigures

uExploration & production

uTrenton play

uFairways

uConclusions

uAcknowledgements

uReferences

 

Utica Shale Exploration and Production

  • The Utica Shale is considered the source rock for the Silurian and deeper hydrocarbon fields in the Appalachian Basin.
  • The Utica has had shows in over 40% of the TBR wells.
  • The historic “Upper Trenton” gas fields of New York are now considered Trenton/Utica shale producers (date back to the 1880s).
  • Drilling in Quebec indicates Utica potential (e.g. Soquip [1970s], GASTEM, JUNEX, Questerre, Forest Oil).
  • The Pointe du Lac Field, Quebec (Quaternary age!) partially sourced by the underlying Utica.
  • Two new wells in New York have been drilled targeting the Utica.

Shallow “Trenton” Play

  • The typical well has several very high pressure gas shows.

  • The gas will flow at a high rate for a few hours or days and then drop off to a very low rate of ~10 mcfd.
  • It will flow at this rate for decades.
  • Drilling practice was to drain high-rate producing intervals and then drill deeper.
  • A few wells have sustained higher rates for longer periods of time (probably vertical fracturing near faults).

Utica and Marcellus Fairways

  • The Utica and Marcellus fairways (indicated by Transformation ratio > 0.95) in New York are considerable.

  • The fairways overlap, with the Marcellus, offering a “2 for 1” opportunity.
  • An active conventional sandstone gas play also exists in the region (3 for 1?).

Conclusions

  • The Utica of NY offers a resource play within a day’s trip of the City of New York.

  • The Utica can now be defined in the subsurface from geophysical-wireline logs.
  • TOC ranges define different members of the Utica but is highest TOC is in Flat Creek.
  • New York offers a 2-for-1 shale opportunity.
  • Data on NY can be found at “ESOGIS.”

Acknowledgements

The authors like to thank Dan Billman (Billman Geological Consultants), Jay Leonard (Platte River Associates), Denis Lavoie (Commission géologique du Canada), John Keller (Terratek), David Hill (EnCana), Dan Jarvie (Worldwide Geochemistry), Fortuna Energy, and EOG Resources.

References

Bradley, D.C., and W.S.F. Kidd, 1991, Flexural extension of the upper continental crust in collisional foredeeps; with supplemental data 91-27: GSA Bulletin, v. 103/11, p. 1416-1438.

Cornell, S.R., and C.E. Brett, 2003, Tectono-eustatic modification from the early Trenton shelf; evidence for shelf reorganization during the onset of Taconic tectonism (Vermontian tectophase): GSA, Northeastern Section, 38th Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs, v. 35/3, p. 85.

Cross, G.E., 2004, Fault related mineralization and fracturing in the Mohawk Valley, eastern New York State: Master’s Thesis for SUNY at Buffalo, New York, p. 238.

Jacobi, R.D., and C.E. Mitchell, 2002, Geodynamical interpretation of a major unconformity in the Taconic Foredeep; Slide scar or onlap unconformity?: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C/, v. 27/1-3, p. 169-201.

Jarvie, D.M., R.J. Hill, T.E. Ruble, and R.M. Pollastro, 2007, Unconventional shale-gas systems; The Mississippian Barnett Shale of north-central Texas as one model for thermogenic shale-gas assessment: AAPG Bulletin, v. 91/4, p. 475-499.

Joy, M.P., C.E. Mitchell, and S. Adhya, 2000, Evidence of a technically driven sequence succession in the Middle Ordovician Taconic Foredeep: Geology, v.28/8, p. 727-730.

Loucks, R.G., and S.C. Ruppel, 2007, Mississippian Barnett Shale; Lithofacies and depositional setting of a deep-water shale-gas succession in the Fort Worth Basin, Texas: AAPG Bulletin, v. 91/4, p. 579-601.

Sterner, R., 1995, Color Landform Atlas of the United States: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Web. 4 April 2008. http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/states/.

Wallace, L.G., and J.B. Roen, 1989, Petroleum source rock potential of the Upper Ordovician black shale sequence, northern Appalachian Basin: U.S.Geological Survey, Open-File Report 89-0488, p. 66, 7 sheets.

 

Return to top.