Unconventional Gas and Tight Oil Exploitation

Roberto Aguilera, Editor, is professor of petroleum engineering and CNOOC-Nexen Chair in Tight Oil and Unconventional Gas at the University of Calgary. Aguilera was a Distinguished Author of the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology (1993 and 1999), a recipient of the Outstanding Service award (1994) and the Distinguished Service Medal (2006) from the Petroleum Society of CIM, an SPE Distinguished Lecturer on the subject of Naturally Fractured Reservoirs for the 2000­-2001 season, and the recipient of the 2011 SPE Canada Region Distinguished Achievement Award Petroleum Engineering Faculty. He was an American Association of Petroleum Geophysicists coinstructor on fractured reservoir analysis from 1984 to 1996. In addition to several research papers, he is author of the book Naturally Fractured Reservoirs (PennWell), coauthor of The Technology of Artificial Lift Methods (PennWell), coauthor of Horizontal Wells (Gulf Publishing Company), coauthor of Determination of Oil and Gas Reserves (Petroleum Society of CIM Monograph No. 1), and coeditor of Advances in the Study of Fractured Reservoirs (The Geological Society of London). Aguilera has rendered training, lecturing, and/or consulting services in more than 50 countries around the world. He holds a BSc in petroleum engineering from the Universidad de America in Bogota, and MEng and PhD degrees in petroleum engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. Co-authors on this book are Babak Bob Arefi, Phillip Chan, Christopher R. Clarkson, John Etherington, Amy Fox, George E. King, Kelly Okuszko, Mehran Poladi-Darvish, Ron Stefik, S. Hamed Tabatabaie, Neil Watson,

Unconventional Gas and Tight Oil Exploitation takes an in-depth look at unconventional low-permeability resource accumulations, the required technologies for specialized development, and the assessments currently being applied. With an author team of 14 subject-matter experts with specialization in different tight oil and unconventional-gas areas, this new book is an authoritative resource for those looking to increase recoverable resources. A must read for those wanting to make a significant positive impact on global energy markets while respecting the environment.Changes to global energy markets, shifts in international oil-supply projections, advancements in horizontal drilling and multistage hydraulic-fracturing technologies-these realities coalesce to potentially extend natural gas and oil supplies by several decades by current levels of consumption. In Unconventional Gas and Tight Oil Exploitation, the authors lend their expertise to offer an in-depth look at unconventional low-permeability resource accumulations, the required technologies for specialized development, and the assessments currently being applied.


While percent recoveries from unconventional gas and tight oil accumulations have been very low compared with conventional reservoirs, these unconventional resources have been enough to dramatically change the slope of production decline in the United States from negative to positive in a very short period of time. This change of slope is "magic" and reflects the creativity of the oil and gas industry. The authors of this book seek to ascertain and explore the challenges and opportunities associated with the current commercial development techniques in an effort to fully understand the reservoirs, the mode of petroleum storage and transport within the reservoirs, the design of drilling and completion programs, and the physics behind formation analyses. Through this understanding, unconventional gas and tight oil exploitation techniques can be developed further, resulting in low production costs, improved economics, increase in technically recoverable resources while respecting the environment, and significant positive impact of gas and tight oil developments globally.