Clay mineralogy of shale gas reservoirs through integrating infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction

Hanieh Jafary Dargahi*, Reza Rezaee, Bobby Pejcic

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The composition and structure of clay minerals play a major role in controlling the physical and chemical properties of shale. Understanding the relationship between clay mineralogy and the physical parameters of shale such as the wettability, fracability, and permeability is crucial in characterizing and developing a shale reservoir. Typically, the higher the amount of clay minerals present the lower will be the material brittleness/fracability, whereas a lower clay abundance is usually associated with improved reservoir permeability. Determining the clay composition in shales is a significant challenge considering the chemical complexity and heterogeneous nature of the shale. In this paper, we report on the preliminary characterization of Permo-Triassic shale reservoir samples from the Perth Basin using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The suitability and performance of FTIR and XRD for determining clay mineralogy was evaluated. Both FTIR and XRD revealed that kaolinite was the dominant clay species in most of the samples from the Permo-Triassic shale reservoir. It was shown that XRD is able to identify and quantify many different minerals in the shale samples, while FTIR helped provide complimentary information on some minerals along with information concerning the amorphous organic matter.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationUnconventional Resources Technology Conference 2013, URTC 2013
PublisherUnconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTEC)
ISBN (Print)9781613993026
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes
EventUnconventional Resources Technology Conference 2013, URTC 2013 - Denver, United States
Duration: 12 Aug 201314 Aug 2013

Publication series

NameUnconventional Resources Technology Conference 2013, URTC 2013

Conference

ConferenceUnconventional Resources Technology Conference 2013, URTC 2013
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityDenver
Period12/08/1314/08/13

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