Tight Gas Reservoirs

Stephen A. Holditch '69 was a faculty member of Texas A&M University from 1976-2019. He most recently held the titles of Professor and Associate Director of the Crisman Institute for Petroleum Research. He was previously the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation Endowed Chair and head of the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University from 2004-2012. He was also the former head of the Texas A&M Energy Institute from 2011-2013.
While at Texas A&M, he taught 97 courses and served on more than 175 graduate committees during his tenure. Holditch received several awards from Texas A&M. He was elected into the Petroleum Engineering Academy of Distinguished Graduates in 1998, named a Texas A&M Distinguished Alumni in 2014, and named to the Corps of Cadet's Hall of Honor in 2016. An endowed chair was also created to honor him in 2012 by many of his former students, the Stephen A. Holditch '69 Department Head Chair in Petroleum Engineering, which is currently held by Jeff Spath.

Holditch held various leadership positions in SPE, including vice president-finance, member of the Board of Directors from 1998-2003, and SPE president in 2002. He received numerous awards in recognition of his technical achievements and leadership. In 1995 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering at the age of 49, and in 1997 he was inducted in to the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. He was elected as an SPE and AIME Honorary Member in 2006. He received some of SPE's highest technical awards, including the Lester C. Uren Award, John Franklin Carll Award, and Anthony F. Lucas Medal. He published over 150 technical papers.

From 1999-2003, Holditch was a Schlumberger Fellow where he was a Production and Reservoir Engineering advisor to the top managers within Schlumberger. Holditch was President of S. A. Holditch & Associates, Inc. from 1977-99, a full service petroleum engineering consulting firm. His firm provided petroleum engineering technology involving the analysis of low permeability gas reservoirs and the design of hydraulic fracture treatments for various industrial and government clients. Holditch also has been a production engineer at Shell Oil Company in charge of workover design and well completions.

Holditch received his B.S. in 1969, a M.S. in 1970 and Ph.D. in 1975 all in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University.

The development of tight-gas reservoirs over the last half-century has profoundly affected and expanded the petroleum industry. Moreover, our improved understanding of tight-gas reservoirs--from finding, characterizing, testing, modeling and developing them to producing their resources economically--can be felt not only throughout our industry but also throughout our economy and, indeed, our daily routines. Abundant, reliable, and inexpensive natural gas has truly transformed many aspects of our modern lifestyles. Within the last decade, for example, the world has made great strides in switching from coal-fired to gas-fired electricity generation (with a resulting reduction of US CO2 emissions of ~14% since 2005*). Our expanded knowledge of natural-gas development and production has further advanced the goal of achieving energy independence, transforming the US from a gas importer into the third largest liquid natural gas (LNG) exporter in the world. It is truly hard to overstate the efficacy of our understanding and exploitation of tight-gas reservoirs.
The four parts contained in this book methodically and comprehensively unfold the technical elements of developing tight-gas reservoirs. They are written
· with an industry-wide audience in mind
· to help the student understand fundamental concepts
· to provide comprehensive reference material for the experienced engineer
· for the practitioner in the field looking for case studies and analogues
· for those readers curious of mathematical detail and theory, where it will surely lay the foundation for many future academic investigations and doctoral theses
This book is comprehensive enough to apply equally to those readers interested in tight-oil reservoirs--common fundamentals, many similar concepts, just larger molecules.
This book's organization supports its methodological approach.
Part 1 introduces tight-gas resources, including definitions and beginning concepts. Thorough analyses of tight-gas resource types (conventional, shale, and coalbed methane) and their geographical distribution and reserves are given. This part describes shale-gas plays within North America in detail.
Part 2 begins where the study of all reservoirs begin, with detailed characterization. Chapters within this part discuss geological considerations over various scales, as well as detailed concepts in well testing and modeling to determine necessary formation properties.
Part 3 details all aspects of designing, planning, modeling, and executing hydraulic fracture treatments and provides details on fracture initiation, geometry, and propagation.
Part 4 contains 23 case histories of tight gas reservoir development.