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U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
ENERGY RESOURCES PROGRAM
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FALL 2014
The Energy Quarterly
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FEATURE STORY 

USGS Co-Edits Special Edition on Indian Gas Hydrates


The Journal of Marine and Petroleum Geology has just published a special 31-article edition on the results of the India National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 01. USGS not only participated in that expedition, but also helped edit and present the special edition.

This special edition, building on three previous gas hydrate editions, includes the most comprehensive compilation of the scientific results from both the shipboard and post-expedition, shore-based research activities. 

The publication includes some of the first scientific drilling seen in the Indian Ocean since the 1980s and sets new standards for gas hydrate research, including characterization of energy potential, associated natural geohazards, and occurrence and distribution.
National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 01 (NGHP-01) site map depicting the location of the 21 research drill sites established during the expedition.

USGS TECHNICAL ANNOUNCEMENT


Technical Announcement UPDATE (10/20/2014)
USGS Updates the National Produced Waters Geochemical Database and Map Viewer!
The USGS has updated the National Produced Waters Geochemical Database and Map Viewer to include trace elements, isotopes, and time-series data, as well as nearly 100,000 new samples with greater spatial coverage and from both conventional and unconventional well types.
 

USGS PUBLICATIONS


USGS Fact Sheet 2014–3047 (8/15/2014)
Assessment of unconventional oil and gas resources in Northeast Mexico, 2014
National and Global Petroleum Assessment
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the USGS estimated means of 0.78 billion barrels of unconventional oil, 23.5 trillion cubic feet of unconventional gas, and 0.88 billion barrels of natural gas liquids in the Sabinas Basin, Burgos Basin, and Tampico-Misantla Basin provinces of northeast Mexico.

USGS Publication: Fact Sheet 2014-3104 (11/10/2014)
USGS Investigations of Water Produced During Hydrocarbon Reservoir Development
Significant quantities of water are present in hydrocarbon reservoirs. When brought to the land surface during oil, gas, and coalbed methane production, the water—either naturally occurring or injected as a method to enhance production—is termed produced water. Produced water is currently managed through processes such as recycling, treatment and discharge, spreading on roads, evaporation or infiltration, and deep well injection. USGS scientists conduct research and publish data related to produced water, thus providing information and insight to scientists, decisionmakers, the energy industry, and the public. The information advances scientific knowledge, informs resource management decisions, and facilitates environmental protection. This fact sheet discusses integrated research being conducted by USGS scientists supported by programs in the Energy and Minerals and Environmental Health Mission Areas. The research products help inform decisions pertaining to understanding the nature and management of produced water in the United States.

USGS Publication - Open-File Report 2012-1024-J (10/27/2014)
Geologic Framework for the National Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Storage Resources—Williston Basin, Central Montana Basins, and Montana Thrust Belt Study Areas
Chapter J - The 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act directs the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to conduct a national assessment of potential geologic storage resources for carbon dioxide (CO2). The methodology used by the USGS for the national CO2 assessment follows that of previous USGS work. This methodology is non-economic and is intended to be used at regional to sub-basinal scales.

USGS Publication: Data Series 843 (10/1/2014)
Energy Map of Southwestern Wyoming, Part B—Oil and Gas, Oil Shale, Uranium, and Solar
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has compiled Part B of the Energy Map of Southwestern Wyoming for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI). Part B consists of oil and gas, oil shale, uranium, and solar energy resource information in support of the WLCI. The WLCI represents the USGS partnership with other Department of the Interior Bureaus, State and local agencies, industry, academia, and private landowners, all of whom collaborate to maintain healthy landscapes, sustain wildlife, and preserve recreational and grazing uses while developing energy resources in southwestern Wyoming. This product is the second and final part of the Energy Map of Southwestern Wyoming series (also see USGS Data Series 683, http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/683/), and encompasses all of Carbon, Lincoln, Sublette, Sweetwater, and Uinta Counties, as well as areas in Fremont County that are in the Great Divide and Green River Basins.

USGS Publication: Fact Sheet 2014–3082 (9/24/2014)
Assessment Potential Shale-Oil and Shale-Gas Resources in Silurian Shales of Jordan, 2014
National and Global Petroleum Assessment Project
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated means of 11 million barrels of potential shale-oil and 320 billion cubic feet of shale-gas resources in Silurian shales of Jordan.

USGS Publication: Digital Data Series DDS–69–HH (9/24/2014)
Map of Assessed Tight-Gas Resources in the United States, 2014
National Assessment of Oil and Gas Project
This report presents a digital map of tight-gas resource assessments in the United States as part of the USGS National Assessment of Oil and Gas Project. Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the USGS quantitatively estimated potential volumes of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas resources within tight-gas assessment units (AUs). This is the second digital map product in a series of USGS unconventional oil and gas resource maps.

USGS Publication: Fact Sheet 2014–3047
Assessment of unconventional oil and gas resources in Northeast Mexico, 2014
National and Global Petroleum Assessment
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated means of 0.78 billion barrels of unconventional oil, 23.5 trillion cubic feet of unconventional gas, and 0.88 billion barrels of natural gas liquids in the Sabinas Basin, Burgos Basin, and Tampico-Misantla Basin provinces of northeast Mexico.

USGS Publication: Scientific Investigations Map 3304 (8/11, 2014)
Detailed North-South Cross Section Showing Environments of Deposition, Organic Richness, and Thermal Maturities of Lower Tertiary Rocks in the Uinta Basin, Utah
The Uinta Basin of northeast Utah has produced large amounts of hydrocarbons from lower Tertiary strata since the 1960s. Recent advances in drilling technologies, in particular the development of efficient methods to drill and hydraulically fracture horizontal wells, has spurred renewed interest in producing hydrocarbons from unconventional low-permeability dolomite and shale reservoirs in the lacustrine, Eocene Green River Formation. ...

USGS Publication: Fact Sheet 2014-3063  (8/7/2014)
Powder X-Ray Diffraction Laboratory, Reston, Virginia
The powder x-ray diffraction (XRD) laboratory is managed jointly by the Eastern Mineral and Environmental Resources and Eastern Energy Resources Science Centers. Laboratory scientists collaborate on a wide variety of research problems involving other USGS science centers and government agencies, universities, and industry. Capabilities include identification and quantification of crystalline and amorphous phases, and crystallographic and atomic structure analysis for a wide variety of sample media. Customized laboratory procedures and analyses commonly are used to characterize non-routine samples including, but not limited to, organic and inorganic components in petroleum source rocks, ore and mine waste, clay minerals, and glassy phases. Procedures can be adapted to meet a variety of research objectives.

USGS Fact Sheet Fact Sheet 2014–3048 (7/16/2014)
Assessment of Undiscovered, Technically Recoverable Oil and Gas Resources of Armenia, 2014
National and Global Petroleum Assessment
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the USGS estimated mean volumes of 1 million barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable conventional oil and 6 billion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable conventional natural gas in Armenia.

USGS Publication: Open-File Report 2012–1024–I (6/11/2014)
Geologic Framework for the National Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Storage Resources—Alaska North Slope and Kandik Basin, Alaska
Chapter I - This report presents fourteen storage assessment units (SAUs) from the Alaska North Slope and two SAUs from the Kandik Basin of Alaska. The Alaska North Slope is a broad, north-dipping coastal plain that is underlain by a thick succession of sedimentary rocks that accumulated steadily throughout much of the Phanerozoic during three major tectonic sequences: the Mississippian through Triassic Ellesmerian sequence, the Jurassic through Lower Cretaceous Beaufortian sequence, and the Cretaceous and Tertiary Brookian sequence. ...

USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2013–5241 (6/3/2014)
Spatial and Stratigraphic Distribution of in Oil Shale of the Green River Formation Using Fischer Assay, Piceance Basin, Northwestern Colorado
The spatial and stratigraphic distribution of water in oil shale of the Eocene Green River Formation in the Piceance Basin of northwestern Colorado was studied in detail using some 321,000 Fischer assay analyses in the U.S. Geological Survey oil-shale database. The oil-shale section was subdivided into 17 roughly time-stratigraphic intervals, and the distribution of water in each interval was assessed separately. This study was conducted in part to determine whether water produced during retorting of oil shale could provide a significant amount of the water needed for an oil-shale industry. ...
 

OUTSIDE PUBLICATIONS


Type: Outside Publication / Journal (December 2014)
Fate of injected CO2 in the Wilcox Group, Louisiana, Gulf Coast Basin: Chemical and isotopic tracers of microbial–brine–rock–CO2 interactions
USGS paper published in Applied Geochemistry
The “2800’ sandstone” of the Olla oil field is an oil and gas-producing reservoir in a coal-bearing interval of the Paleocene–Eocene Wilcox Group in north-central Louisiana, USA. In the 1980s, this producing unit was flooded with CO2 in an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project, leaving ∼30% of the injected CO2 in the 2800’ sandstone post-injection. This study utilizes isotopic and geochemical tracers from co-produced natural gas, oil and brine to determine the fate of the injected CO2, including the possibility of enhanced microbial conversion of CO2 to CH4 via methanogenesis. ...

Type: Outside Publication / Journal (October 2014)
Evidence for a palaeo-oil column and alteration of residual oil in a gas-condensate field: Integrated oil inclusion and experimental results
USGS paper published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
In the Phuong Dong gas condensate field, Cuu Long Basin, Vietnam, hydrocarbon inclusions in quartz trapped a variety of petroleum fluids in the gas zone. Based on the attributes of the oil inclusion assemblages (fluorescence colour of the oil, bubble size, presence of bitumen), the presence of a palaeo-oil column is inferred prior to migration of gas into the reservoir. When a palaeo-oil column is displaced by gas, a residual volume fraction of oil remains in pores. ...

Type: Outside Publication / Journal (September 2014)
A Synoptic Examination of Causes of Land Loss in Southern Louisiana as Related to the Exploitation of Subsurface Geologic Resources
USGS paper published in Journal of Coastal Research
Historic wetland losses along the Gulf of Mexico coastline have long given support to the idea that the observed changes do not follow the conventional marine erosion of a quasi-stable continental mass. Deterioration of the Mississippi delta is no exception. In an assessment of 33 of the major deltas in the world, Syvitski et al. (2009) found that 85% of them face areal reduction. ...

Type: Outside Publication / Journal (September 2014)
Upper Devonian–Mississippian stratigraphic framework of the Arkoma Basin and distribution of potential source-rock facies in the Woodford–Chattanooga and Fayetteville–Caney shale-gas systems
USGS paper published in AAPG
Wireline logs were used to document the stratigraphic framework of Upper Devonian–Mississippian strata in the Arkoma Basin, and maps of high-gamma ray (HGR) log response were used to analyze the spatial distribution of potential source rocks in the Woodford–Chattanooga and Fayetteville–Caney shale-gas systems. ...

Type: Outside Publication / Journal (September 2014)
Application of binomial-edited CPMG to shale characterization
USGS paper published in Journal of Magnetic Resonance
Unconventional shale resources may contain a significant amount of hydrogen in organic solids such as kerogen, but it is not possible to directly detect these solids with many NMR systems. Binomial-edited pulse sequences capitalize on magnetization transfer between solids, semi-solids, and liquids to provide an indirect method of detecting solid organic materials in shales. When the organic solids can be directly measured, binomial-editing helps distinguish between different phases. We applied a binomial-edited CPMG pulse sequence to a range of natural and experimentally-altered shale samples. The most substantial signal loss is seen in shales rich in organic solids while fluids associated with inorganic pores seem essentially unaffected. This suggests that binomial-editing is a potential method for determining fluid locations, solid organic content, and kerogen–bitumen discrimination.

Type: Outside Publication / Journal (January 2015 / Available online Aug. 1, 2014)
Standardization of reflectance measurements in dispersed organic matter: Results of an exercise to improve interlaboratory agreement
USGS paper published in Marine and Petroleum Geology
Vitrinite reflectance generally is considered the most robust thermal maturity parameter available for application to hydrocarbon exploration and petroleum system evaluation. However, until 2011 there was no standardized methodology available to provide guidelines for vitrinite reflectance measurements in shale...

Type: Outside Publication / Journal  (January 2015 / Available online Aug. 1, 2014)
Experimental investigation of changes in methane adsorption of bitumen-free Woodford Shale with thermal maturation induced by hydrous pyrolysis
USGS paper published in Marine and Petroleum Geology
This study quantifies the effects of organic-matter (OM) thermal maturity on methane (CH4) sorption, on the basis of five samples that were artificially matured through hydrous pyrolysis achieved by heating samples of immature Woodford Shale under five different time–temperature conditions. CH4-sorption isotherms at 35 Â°C, 50 Â°C, and 65 Â°C, and pressures up to 14 MPa on dry, solvent-extracted samples of the artificially matured Woodford Shale were measured. ...

Type: Outside Publication / Journal (August 2014)
The use of solvent extractions and solubility theory to discern hydrocarbon associations in coal, with application to the coal–supercritical CO2 system
USGS paper published in Organic Geochemistry
Samples of three high volatile bituminous coals were subjected to parallel sets of extractions involving solvents dichloromethane (DCM), carbon disulfide (CS2), and supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) (40 Â°C, 100 bar) to study processes affecting coal–solvent interactions. Recoveries of perdeuterated surrogate compounds, n-hexadecane-d34 and four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), added as a spike prior to extraction, provided further insight into these processes. ...

Type: Outside Publication / Journal (August 2014)
Re–Os geochronology and Os isotope fingerprinting of petroleum sourced from a Type I lacustrine kerogen: Insights from the natural Green River petroleum system in the Uinta Basin and hydrous pyrolysis experiments
USGS paper published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
Rhenium–osmium (Re–Os) geochronology of marine petroleum systems has allowed the determination of the depositional age of source rocks as well as the timing of petroleum generation. In addition, Os isotopes have been applied as a fingerprinting tool to correlate oil to its source unit. To date, only classic marine petroleum systems have been studied. Here we present Re–Os geochronology and Os isotope fingerprinting of different petroleum phases (oils, tar sands and gilsonite) derived from the lacustrine Green River petroleum system in the Uinta Basin, USA. ...

Type: Outside Publication / Journal (August 2014)
Petrographic maturity parameters of a Devonian shale maturation series, Appalachian Basin, USA. ICCP Thermal Indices Working Group interlaboratory exercise
USGS paper published in International Journal of Coal Geology
This paper presents results of an interlaboratory exercise on organic matter optical maturity parameters using a natural maturation series comprised by three Devonian shale samples (Huron Member, Ohio Shale) from the Appalachian Basin, USA. This work was conducted by the Thermal Indices Working Group of the International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology (ICCP) Commission II (Geological Applications of Organic Petrology). This study aimed to compare: 1. maturation predicted by different types of petrographic parameters (vitrinite reflectance and spectral fluorescence of telalginite), 2. reproducibility of the results for these maturation parameters obtained by different laboratories, and 3. improvements in the spectral fluorescence measurement obtained using modern detection systems in comparison with the results from historical round robin exercises.

Type: Outside Publication / Journal (July 2014)
Organic petrology of the Aptian-age section in the downdip Mississippi Interior Salt Basin, Mississippi, USA: Observations and preliminary implications for thermal maturation history
USGS paper published in International Journal of Coal Geology
This study identifies a thermal maturity anomaly within the downdip Mississippi Interior Salt Basin (MISB) of southern Mississippi, USA, through examination of bitumen reflectance data from Aptian-age strata (Sligo Formation, Pine Island Shale, James Limestone, and Rodessa Formation). U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reconnaissance investigations conducted in 2011–2012 examined Aptian-age thermal maturity trends across the onshore northern Gulf of Mexico region and indicated that the section in the downdip MISB is approaching the wet gas/condensate window (Ro ~ 1.2%). ...

Type: Outside Publication / Journal (June 2014)
Inference of strata separation and gas emission paths in longwall overburden using continuous wavelet transform of well logs and geostatistical simulation
USGS paper published in Journal of Applied Geophysics  
Prediction of potential methane emission pathways from various sources into active mine workings or sealed gobs from longwall overburden is important for controlling methane and for improving mining safety. The aim of this paper is to infer strata separation intervals and thus gas emission pathways from standard well log data. The proposed technique was applied to well logs acquired through the Mary Lee/Blue Creek coal seam of the Upper Pottsville Formation in the Black Warrior Basin, Alabama, using well logs from a series of boreholes aligned along a nearly linear profile.

Type: Outside Publication / Journal (October 2014 / Available online June 2014)
Benzo[b]naphthothiophenes and alkyl dibenzothiophenes: Molecular tracers for oil migration distances
USGS paper published in Marine and Petroleum Geology
The secondary migration of petroleum is one of the most critical geological processes responsible for the accumulation of hydrocarbons in a sedimentary basin. Pyrrolic nitrogen compounds such as carbazoles and benzocarbazoles are thought to be practical molecular indicators for estimating relative migration distances of oil. In light oils or condensates, however, considerable analytical errors are usually caused by low concentrations of NSO-compounds. Here we show that polycyclic sulfur aromatic hydrocarbons such as dibenzothiophene, C1∼C3 alkylated dibenzothiophenes and benzo[b]naphthothiophenes, which are present in relatively higher concentrations than the pyrrolic nitrogen compounds, exhibit changes in both absolute and relative concentrations that correlate with migration distances. ...

Type: Outside Publication / Journal (October 2014 / Available online June 2014)
Asphaltene content and composition as a measure of Deepwater Horizon oil spill losses within the first 80 days
USGS paper published in Organic Geochemistry 
The composition and content of asphaltenes in spilled and original wellhead oils from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) incident provide information on the amount of original oil lost and the processes most responsible for the losses within the first 80 days of the active spill. Spilled oils were collected from open waters, coastal waters and coastal sediments during the incident. Asphaltenes are the most refractory component of crude oils but their alteration in the spilled oils during weathering prevents them from being used directly as a conservative component to calculate original oil losses. ...

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Photo Credit: Fothergilla leaves by the U.S. National Arboretum
2014 US Geological Survey, Energy Resources Program


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