The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the feasibility of economically producing natural gas from low-permeability reservoirs. Two broad research goals have been defined: (1) reducing the uncertainty of the reservoir production potential, and (2) improving the extraction technology. These goals are being pursued by conducting research and encouraging industrial efforts in developing the necessary technology, including: (1) providing fundamental research into the nature of tight, lenticular gas sands and the technologies for diagnosing and developing them: (2) developing and verifying the technology for effective gas production; and (3) promoting the transfer of research products and technology advances to the gas industry in usable forms. The focus of the research for the last several years has been improving diagnostic instrumentation for reservoir and stimulation performance evaluation, geophysical and engineering interpretation, and stimulation techniques. Integrated geologic studies of three basins containing tight lenticular sands, which were selected by DOE as priority research targets, have also been pursued as part of this new effort. To date, the following tentative conclusions have been formed: Permeability of the tight gas sands can be as much as three to four orders of magnitude lower than that of conventional gas deposits. Nineteen western geologic basins and trends containing significant volumes of tight gas have been identified. Gas resources in the priority geologic basins have been estimated - Piceance Basin 49 Tcf.; Greater Green River Basin, 136 Tcf.; Uinta Basin, 20 Tcf. Presence of natural micro-fractures within a reservoir and the effective propped length of hydraulically induced fratures are the critical parameters for successful development of tight sand resources. Stimulation technology at the present time is insufficient to efficiently recover gas from lenticular tight reservoirs. 8 figs., 3 tabs.
