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Energies
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Development of Unconventional Oil and Gas Fields
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Development of Unconventional Oil and Gas Fields

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "H1: Petroleum Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2024) | Viewed by 5007

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Renbao Zhao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Interests: enhanced oil recovery; heavy oil fire flooding theory and method; unconventional in situ upgrading mechanism
Dr. Xuyang Guo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Interests: petroleum engineering; rock mechanics; coupled THMC behaviors in gas hydrate reservoirs
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Unconventional oil and gas resources have gained increasing significance in light of the growing volatility of oil and gas prices. Effective and economical development of unconventional resources, including heavy oil, shale oil and shale gas, oil shale, tar sand, and gas hydrates, is the key to sustained hydrocarbon exploitation. Recent applications of advanced techniques and technologies have largely facilitated the efficacy of unconventional oil and gas development.

This Special Issue will present the latest advances in this field. With this aim in mind, we are inviting investigators to submit relevant original research articles, case studies, and review articles.

Topics of particular interest include (but are not limited to):

  • Strategies for heavy oil and oil sand/tar sand development;
  • Recent advances in in-situ combustion and thermal recovery;
  • Effective exploitation of oil shale;
  • Hydrogen energy production and utilization;
  • Strategies for shale gas and shale oil reservoir development;
  • Strategies for tight gas and tight oil reservoir development;
  • Theories and techniques for the sustained exploitation of gas hydrates;
  • Hydraulic fracturing techniques in the development of unconventional resources;
  • Experimental and numerical modeling techniques related to unconventional resource development;
  • Machine learning techniques related to unconventional resources development.

Prof. Dr. Renbao Zhao
Dr. Xuyang Guo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • heavy oil
  • shale oil/gas
  • oil shale
  • tar sand
  • thermal recovery
  • in situ combustion
  • gas hydrates

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 1759 KiB  
Article
Influence of a Precursor Catalyst on the Composition of Products in Catalytic Cracking of Heavy Oil
by Khoshim Kh. Urazov, Nikita N. Sviridenko, Yulia A. Sviridenko and Veronika R. Utyaganova
Energies 2024, 17(9), 2016; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17092016 - 24 Apr 2024
Viewed by 279
Abstract
Heavy oils are characterized by a high content of resins and asphaltenes, which complicates refining and leads to an increase in the cost of refinery products. These components can be strongly adsorbed on the acid sites of a supported catalyst, leading to its [...] Read more.
Heavy oils are characterized by a high content of resins and asphaltenes, which complicates refining and leads to an increase in the cost of refinery products. These components can be strongly adsorbed on the acid sites of a supported catalyst, leading to its deactivation. Currently, various salts of group 8 metals are being considered for such processes to act as catalysts during oil cracking. At the same time, the nature of the precursor often has a significant impact on the process of refining heavy oil. In this work, catalytic cracking of heavy oil from the Ashalchinskoye field using different precursors (nanodispersed catalysts formed in situ based on NiO) has been studied. The cracking was carried out at 450 °C with a catalyst content from 0.1 to 0.5 wt.%. The catalytic cracking products were analyzed via SARA, GC, XRD and SEM. Nickel acetate and nitrate promote similar yields of by-products, while formate promotes higher yields of gaseous products. Formate and nickel acetate were shown to produce 1.8 and 2.8 wt.% more light fractions than nickel nitrate. When heavy oil is cracked in the presence of Ni(NO3)2∙6H2O, the maximum decrease in sulfur content (2.12 wt.%) is observed compared to other precursors. It has been found that the composition and morphology of the resulting nickel sulfides and compaction products are influenced by the nature of the catalyst precursor. XRD and SEM analyses of coke-containing catalysts indicate the formation of Ni9S8 and Ni0.96S phases during cracking when nickel nitrate is used and the formation of NiS and Ni9S8 when nickel acetate and formate are used. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development of Unconventional Oil and Gas Fields)
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15 pages, 3968 KiB  
Article
Study on Proppant Transport and Placement in Shale Gas Main Fractures
by Tiancheng Liang, Nailing Xiu, Haifeng Fu, Yinlin Jian, Tao Zhang, Xingyang Du and Zhicheng Tu
Energies 2024, 17(7), 1537; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17071537 - 23 Mar 2024
Viewed by 442
Abstract
In this paper, based on the background of a deep shale reservoir, a solid–liquid two-phase flow model suitable for proppant and fracturing fluid flow was established based on the Euler method, and a large-scale fracture model was established. Based on field parameters, a [...] Read more.
In this paper, based on the background of a deep shale reservoir, a solid–liquid two-phase flow model suitable for proppant and fracturing fluid flow was established based on the Euler method, and a large-scale fracture model was established. Based on field parameters, a proppant transport experiment was conducted. Then, on the basis of the experimental fracture model, proppant transport simulation under different influencing factors was carried out. The results show that the laboratory experiment was in good agreement with the simulated results. The process of proppant accumulation in fractures can be divided into three stages according to the characteristics of sand banks. The displacement mainly affects the sedimentation distance of the proppant in the first stage, and the viscosity of the fracturing fluid represents the strength of the fluid sand carrying performance. Compared with 40/70 mesh proppant, 70/140 mesh proppant is more easily fluidizable, the fracture width has less influence on proppant migration and placement, and the perforation location only affects the accumulation pattern at the fracture entrance, but has less influence on proppant placement in the remote well zone. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development of Unconventional Oil and Gas Fields)
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17 pages, 7493 KiB  
Article
Numerical Analysis of In Situ Conversion Process of Oil Shale Formation Based on Thermo-Hydro-Chemical Coupled Modelling
by Juan Jin, Weidong Jiang, Jiandong Liu, Junfeng Shi, Xiaowen Zhang, Wei Cheng, Ziniu Yu, Weixi Chen and Tingfu Ye
Energies 2023, 16(5), 2103; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16052103 - 21 Feb 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1342
Abstract
The in situ conversion process (ICP) is a retorting method pyrolyzing the kerogen in shale into oil and gas products, which shows great potential to promote the recovery of oil shale resources. In this work, a thermo-hydro-chemical-coupled model for the in situ conversion [...] Read more.
The in situ conversion process (ICP) is a retorting method pyrolyzing the kerogen in shale into oil and gas products, which shows great potential to promote the recovery of oil shale resources. In this work, a thermo-hydro-chemical-coupled model for the in situ conversion process is established, considering the temperature dependence of key properties and the transverse isotropy caused by the layered characteristics of oil shale. Based on the proposed model, a series of simulations is conducted to evaluate the production performance of the in situ conversion process of oil shale reservoirs. The results indicate that energy efficiency reaches a maximum of 2.7 around the fifth year of the heating process, indicating the feasibility of in situ conversion technology. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis shows that the heating temperature should be higher than 300 °C to avoid the energy output being less than the energy input, and the oil/gas ratio decreases with increasing heating temperature. Moreover, thermal conductivity is positively with production while heat capacity is negatively correlated, and the energy efficiency decreases with increasing thermal conductivity and matrix heat capacity. Finally, the heating period should be no longer than 4 years to maximize the heating efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development of Unconventional Oil and Gas Fields)
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14 pages, 8443 KiB  
Article
Research on Rock Minerals and IP Response Characteristics of Shale Gas Reservoir in Sichuan Basin
by Kui Xiang, Liangjun Yan, Gang Yu, Xinghao Wang and Yuanyuan Luo
Energies 2022, 15(17), 6439; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15176439 - 03 Sep 2022
Viewed by 939
Abstract
As a kind of clean energy, shale gas has attracted much attention, and the exploration and development potential of shale gas resources in the middle and deep layers is huge. However, due to the changeable geological and burial conditions, complex geophysical responses are [...] Read more.
As a kind of clean energy, shale gas has attracted much attention, and the exploration and development potential of shale gas resources in the middle and deep layers is huge. However, due to the changeable geological and burial conditions, complex geophysical responses are formed. Therefore, studying the characteristics of reservoir rock minerals and their complex resistivity response characteristics is helpful to deepen the understanding of the electrical characteristics of shale gas reservoirs and provide theoretical basis and physical basis for exploration and development. The study is based on shale samples from the Longmaxi Formation to the Wufeng Formation of a shale gas well in southern Sichuan, China, and the mineral composition and complex resistivity of shale are measured. Through inversion of complex resistivity model, four IP parameters, namely zero-frequency resistivity, polarizability, time constant and frequency correlation coefficient, are extracted, and the relationship between mineral components of rock samples and IP parameters is analyzed. It is found that the polarizability gradually increases and the resistivity gradually decreases with the increase in borehole depth. With the increase in pyrite content, the polarization increases and the resistivity decreases. The corresponding relational model is established, and it is found that the polarizability is highly sensitive to the characteristic mineral pyrite, which provides more effective data support for the subsequent deep shale gas exploration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development of Unconventional Oil and Gas Fields)
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14 pages, 3388 KiB  
Article
Evolution of the Pseudo-Components of Heavy Oil during Low Temperature Oxidation Processes
by Renbao Zhao, Tiantian Wang, Lijuan Chen, Jingjun Pan, Shutong Li, Dong Zhao, Long Chen and Jiaying Wang
Energies 2022, 15(14), 5201; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15145201 - 18 Jul 2022
Viewed by 1215
Abstract
Heavy oil was divided into different pseudo-components according to their boiling ranges through a real-boiling point distillation process, and the oxidation products for pseudo-components with a boiling range higher than 350 °C were systematically investigated during low temperature oxidation (LTO). Kinetic cell (KC) [...] Read more.
Heavy oil was divided into different pseudo-components according to their boiling ranges through a real-boiling point distillation process, and the oxidation products for pseudo-components with a boiling range higher than 350 °C were systematically investigated during low temperature oxidation (LTO). Kinetic cell (KC) experiments were conducted under different ambient pressure conditions and temperature ranges, and the oxidation products were characterized using Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS). The results indicate that the oxygen addition and cracking reactions typically occur in the temperature intervals of 140–170 °C and 180–220 °C, respectively, at the given heating rate of 3.83 °C/min. Components with the mass-to-charge ratio in the region of 250–450 Da mainly evaporate in the temperature regions of 25–150 °C, which results in losses from the fraction. Considering the gas-liquid multi-phase reaction, the pseudo-components with low boiling range distributed on the surface of the liquid film are prone to generate high molecular weight compounds through oxygen addition. In contrast, the high boiling point range fractions increase in molecular weight through oxygen addition and are then subject to further cracking processes that generate lower molecular weights in the region of 200–400 Da. N1O3- and N1O4- containing compounds were determined by high resolution mass spectra, and these compounds were generated through oxygen addition of basic N1-containing compounds. On the basis of these reactions and the experimental results obtained, some insights related to the LTO of heavy oil, which are highly valuable for ISC field applications, are summarized. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development of Unconventional Oil and Gas Fields)
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