Status quo of tight oil exploitation in the United States and its implication

  • QIN Wei ,
  • LI Zhongdong ,
  • ZHENG Zhenheng ,
  • ZHAO Jiancheng
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  • Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, PetroChina, Beijing 100083, China

Online published: 2011-08-20

Abstract

The exploration and development of shale gas in the U. S. is progressing fast, which also leads to the development of tight oil. Tight oil is the oil accumulating within the shale system, including black shale with very low permeability, argillaceous siltstone and interbeded sandstone. Tight oil can be free oil or absorbed oil. It is a continuous reservoir of self-generation and self-storage. The development of tight oil in the U. S. mainly performed in Bakken, Eagle Ford, and the Barnett shale zone. Bakken shale has oil resource of 230×108 t and recoverable resource of 5.9×108 t. Bakken shale located within the U. S. has oil of 3.7×108 t and similar amount of associated gas. Its cumulative oil production since 2 000 is about 2.8×107 t. Eagle Ford shale produces oil in the northern part, annual oil production of about 2×105 t. Barnett shale has average undiscovered oil resource of 1.4×107 t, ofwhich undiscovered tight oil resource is 4.8×106 t. At present, Barnett shale has more than 8 000 producing wells, mainly produces oil in the northern part, gas in southern part. Up to the end of 2009, the cumulative oil production of “tight oil zone” has reached 7.7×106 t. China is a country rich in black shale. It is expected that the exploration of tight oil will get breakthrough soon.

Cite this article

QIN Wei , LI Zhongdong , ZHENG Zhenheng , ZHAO Jiancheng . Status quo of tight oil exploitation in the United States and its implication[J]. Lithologic Reservoirs, 2011 , 23(4) : 25 -32 . DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-8926.2011.04.005

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