What is the shale gas?
Shale gas is natural gas found in shale deposits, where it is trapped in microscopic or submicroscopic pores. This natural gas is a mixture of naturally occurring hydrocarbon gases produced from the decomposition of organic matter (plant and animal remains).
How does shale gas form?
Hydraulic fracturing or fracking creates fractures in the shale formation to release the gas. A fracturing fluid is pumped under high pressure (ca. 100 bar) into the drilling pipe to widen fractures in the rock or to create new ones. The fluid consists mainly of water.
What is shale gas and how is it extracted?
Shale gas or unconventional gas is extracted from the impermeable shale through a process called hydraulic fracturing (also known as hydrofracking or fracking). A crude form of this technique, involving nitroglycerine, was used for the first time around the 1860s to explore for oil and gas.
What is shale gas revolution?
The “Shale Revolution” refers to the combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling that enabled the United States to significantly increase its production of oil and natural gas, particularly from tight oil formations, which now account for 36% of total U.S. crude oil production.
What is fracking and shale gas?
What is shale gas and hydraulic fracturing? Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is a technique used in the extraction of gas from rock formations by injecting fluid at high pressure. Gas from hydraulic fracturing is the same natural gas that is obtained from conventional gas fields, such as the North Sea.
What is shale gas vs natural gas?
Shale gas has the same composition as natural gas. Every shale gas is a natural gas, the difference between the types of gases are the locations of the reservoirs. Natural gas can be found in big amounts, while shale gas is trapped inside the microcracks of a rock.
Is shale natural gas or oil?
Shale gas and shale oil are exactly the same as conventional gas and oil. Natural gas is composed mostly of methane, and less is required during the processing. Crude oil requires extensive refining before it is used.
Is shale a rock?
shale, any of a group of fine-grained, laminated sedimentary rocks consisting of silt- and clay-sized particles. Shale is the most abundant of the sedimentary rocks, accounting for roughly 70 percent of this rock type in the crust of the Earth. Shales are often found with layers of sandstone or limestone.
Is shale gas the same as natural gas?
What is shale gas?
Shale gas is natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations. Shale gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the United States since the start of this century, and interest has spread to potential gas shales in the rest of the world.
What does’shale gas’mean?
Definition of ‘shale gas’. shale gas. uncountable noun. Shale gas is a natural gas that is removed from rock by forcing liquid and sand into the rock. This area has huge deposits of shale gas.
What is a shale play in geology?
Shale Gas Play – A set of discovered, undiscovered or possible natural gas accumulations that exhibit similar geological characteristics. Shale plays are located within basins, which are large-scale geologic depressions, often hundreds of miles across, which also may contain other oil and natural gas resources.
What are the characteristics of shale rocks?
Shales that host economic quantities of gas have a number of common properties. They are rich in organic material (0.5% to 25%), and are usually mature petroleum source rocks in the thermogenic gas window, where high heat and pressure have converted petroleum to natural gas.