Source-Rock Geochemistry of Unconventional Plays

Geochemical screening is one of the most critical and first steps for assessment of unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs such as coal and shale. Most commonly, the Rock-Eval technique is used to generate important information about the reservoir being studied, and several established guidelines exist which helps in screening of these hydrocarbon plays. However, often the results generated may lead to misinterpretation by analysts, when appropriate protocols are not followed, and when the different curves generated from analysis are not carefully considered. Through and careful examination of the Rock-Eval generated curves, not only helps in more reliable screening of these reservoirs, but can also provide additional insights in predicting the end-usage of the horizon, for example, the nature of S2 curves can be used to predict the end utilization of coal. In this chapter we highlight the important factors viz. particle crush-size, sample weight etc., that affect the results from Rock-Eval. We then present comprehensive evaluation of different curves generated from Rock-Eval and provide detailed insights.