73
shale is either mined and processed off-site, or retorted in place. Despite decades of
efforts, it has never been cost-competitive with conventional oil.
There was no doubt that the development of unconventional resources would be
a technical challenge, and the DOE approach was very technological and
engineering- oriented. Unfortunately, little consideration was given to the economics, which turned out to be important for any of these resources to be produced in
the real world.
The Eastern Gas Shales Project (EGSP) was started in 1975 by the Energy
Research and Development Administration, a predecessor agency to DOE. The
objective was to assess the natural gas resource potential of organic-rich, black
shales in eastern U.S. sedimentary basins because of their proximity to significant
natural gas usage areas in the Great Lakes region and large cities in the Northeast.
The project contained three major components: resource characterization, development of production technology, and the transfer of that technology to industry
(Soeder 2017).
Multiple shale drill cores were collected under the EGSP from the Appalachian
basin, Michigan basin, and the Illinois basin between 1976 and 1982 for a project
total of 44 (Bolyard 1981). DOE used a series of cooperative agreements set up with
established drilling companies to obtain the core material. The shale formations of
interest ranged from the Upper Devonian Cleveland Member of the Ohio Shale to
the Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale in the Appalachian basin, along with the
Upper Devonian Antrim Shale in Michigan, and the similar-age New Albany Shale
in the Illinois basin (Fig. 4.3).
Drill cores were 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) in diameter, and all were directionally oriented (Cliffs Minerals, Inc. 1982). The cores were characterized for lithology, color,
and orientation of natural fractures. They were also photographed and gamma radiation readings were obtained at one-foot (30 cm) intervals for comparison with wireline gamma well logs. Rock samples were collected from the cores for the various
labs, government agencies and universities that had requested them. The cores were
eventually transferred to the state geological survey in the state where each had been
cut. The EGSP was managed by the DOE Morgantown Energy Technology Center
(METC) in West Virginia, which is now a campus of the DOE National Energy
Technology Laboratory (NETL).
One of the participants engaged in the EGSP coring was Mitchell Energy, a midsize production company run by George P. Mitchell. Back in the 1950s, Mitchell
was working as a consulting geologist on some oil and natural gas prospects. The
small drilling company he had started with his brother Johnny and a few other partners acquired a supposedly worthless lease in north Texas that turned out to have gas
and oil production from more than 30 separate fields. By the mid-1960s, Mitchell
Energy had become the nation’s top independent gas producer.
Mitchell Energy drilled and cored a number of shale wells in Ohio under the
Eastern Gas Shales Project in 1978 and 1979. The wells proved to be non- productive,
but George Mitchell remained intrigued by the gas potential of black shale, and in
1981 he began focusing on the Barnett Shale in the Fort Worth Basin of Texas near
Mitchell Energy’s home office in Dallas.
4.3 The Unconventional Solution
shale is either mined and processed off-site, or retorted in place. Despite decades of
efforts, it has never been cost-competitive with conventional oil.
There was no doubt that the development of unconventional resources would be
a technical challenge, and the DOE approach was very technological and
engineering- oriented. Unfortunately, little consideration was given to the economics, which turned out to be important for any of these resources to be produced in
the real world.
The Eastern Gas Shales Project (EGSP) was started in 1975 by the Energy
Research and Development Administration, a predecessor agency to DOE. The
objective was to assess the natural gas resource potential of organic-rich, black
shales in eastern U.S. sedimentary basins because of their proximity to significant
natural gas usage areas in the Great Lakes region and large cities in the Northeast.
The project contained three major components: resource characterization, development of production technology, and the transfer of that technology to industry
(Soeder 2017).
Multiple shale drill cores were collected under the EGSP from the Appalachian
basin, Michigan basin, and the Illinois basin between 1976 and 1982 for a project
total of 44 (Bolyard 1981). DOE used a series of cooperative agreements set up with
established drilling companies to obtain the core material. The shale formations of
interest ranged from the Upper Devonian Cleveland Member of the Ohio Shale to
the Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale in the Appalachian basin, along with the
Upper Devonian Antrim Shale in Michigan, and the similar-age New Albany Shale
in the Illinois basin (Fig. 4.3).
Drill cores were 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) in diameter, and all were directionally oriented (Cliffs Minerals, Inc. 1982). The cores were characterized for lithology, color,
and orientation of natural fractures. They were also photographed and gamma radiation readings were obtained at one-foot (30 cm) intervals for comparison with wireline gamma well logs. Rock samples were collected from the cores for the various
labs, government agencies and universities that had requested them. The cores were
eventually transferred to the state geological survey in the state where each had been
cut. The EGSP was managed by the DOE Morgantown Energy Technology Center
(METC) in West Virginia, which is now a campus of the DOE National Energy
Technology Laboratory (NETL).
One of the participants engaged in the EGSP coring was Mitchell Energy, a midsize production company run by George P. Mitchell. Back in the 1950s, Mitchell
was working as a consulting geologist on some oil and natural gas prospects. The
small drilling company he had started with his brother Johnny and a few other partners acquired a supposedly worthless lease in north Texas that turned out to have gas
and oil production from more than 30 separate fields. By the mid-1960s, Mitchell
Energy had become the nation’s top independent gas producer.
Mitchell Energy drilled and cored a number of shale wells in Ohio under the
Eastern Gas Shales Project in 1978 and 1979. The wells proved to be non- productive,
but George Mitchell remained intrigued by the gas potential of black shale, and in
1981 he began focusing on the Barnett Shale in the Fort Worth Basin of Texas near
Mitchell Energy’s home office in Dallas.
4.3 The Unconventional Solution