NETL leads research to improve production efficiency of Marcellus shale

Tests of a Marcellus shale well in West Virginia by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) could yield ways to improve production efficiency and environmental performance in the region.

The 139-foot core sample was taken from a new experimental well operated by the Marcellus shale Energy and Environmental Laboratory (MSEEL) — a research partnership between NETL, West Virginia University, Northeast Natural Energy and Ohio State University.

The MSEEL project was founded to better understand Marcellus shale by using new approaches and technologies to optimize production and reduce environmental impacts.

“Our work is allowing us to characterize a rock core from the new well in Monongalia County to better understand the structure and variation of the Marcellus Formation,” NETL Research Engineer Dustin Crandall said. “The scans we are doing of this new core sample will provide detailed datasets not typically available from shales for analysis.”

The researchers are using sophisticated scanning equipment, including computed tomography (CT), which is used to capture structural variations and density. CT scanning uses computer-processed combinations of many X-ray measurements taken from different angles to produce cross-sectional images of a scanned object.

They are also using a multi-sensor core logger to measure physical properties at centimeter scale resolutions.