Marcellus Shale Engineering and Environmental Laboratory to begin research at second site
The Marcellus Shale Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (MSEEL) will begin research at a new site in West Virginia, which will aim to improve gas recovery from horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
MSEEL is a research partnership that is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and includes West Virginia University (WVU) and Northeast Natural Energy (NNE). The new test site is located west of the initial Morgantown Industrial Park site in western Monongalia County, West Virginia.
At the first site, researchers designed stimulation zones that optimized perforations around natural fractures. Monitoring using seismic and fiber optic distributed temperature and acoustic sensing (DAS/DTS) showed that the engineered stages outperformed conventional geometrically designed stages.
A vital goal of the upcoming field test is to develop advanced stimulation and completion capabilities.
“DAS/DTS is too costly to be used on all wells,” Robert Vagnetti of NETL said. “Therefore, aided by advanced numerical modeling developed by WVU, the project team will compare the use and results of new completion/stimulation techniques at the Blacksville site to the large array of relatively cost-prohibitive techniques used in the Morgantown Industrial Park wells.”
