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Mechanical and Elastic Characterization of Shale Gas Play in Upper Indus Basin, Pakistan

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Abstract

The organic-rich shale intervals of Patala Formation of Paleocene age may be considered as potential shale gas play in the Upper Indus Basin of Pakistan. Until now, seismic and elastic properties of the Patala shales are not investigated in detail necessary to declare it as shale gas play and to differentiate shale gas pay zone from the non-pay zone. Data of eight wells in which Patala shales were encountered at various depth levels from 2000 to 4300 m were deeply investigated for shale gas characterization. This shale fulfills the basic criteria of organic-rich shale with TOC ~ 0.5–5.8%, vitrinite reflectance (level of maturity) is 0.6–1.7%, average thickness 48 m. The brittleness index (BI) of this organic-rich shale was computed by using effective mechanical properties and mineralogy to define brittle zones in the shale intervals preferable for generating the fracture network. BI data points demonstrate that a large number of values fall in the brittle zone, whereas fewer values fall in the ductile zone. However, a certain number of values fall in the brittle–ductile transition zone. The quantitative comparison between different elastic and seismic properties derived from the wireline logs guide for the delineation of the pay zone from the non-pay zone in the organic-rich shale intervals.

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Acknowledgement

This work is part of the University of the Punjab Research Projects for fiscal year 2019 – 2020. The authors are thankful to the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan for provide funding to complee this work. The authors are highly thankful to the Directorate General Petroleum Concessions (DGPC) of Pakistan for providing data to complete this work. The authors would like to thank the Research Supporting Project number (RSP-2020/89), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for funding this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, 54590, Pakistan

    Perveiz Khalid, Muhammad Irfan Ehsan & Shahzada Khurram

  2. Archaeology Department, College of Tourism and Archaeology, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Mohamed Metwaly

  3. National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG), Helwan, Cairo, Egypt

    Mohamed Metwaly

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  1. Perveiz Khalid
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Correspondence to Perveiz Khalid.

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Khalid, P., Ehsan, M.I., Metwaly, M. et al. Mechanical and Elastic Characterization of Shale Gas Play in Upper Indus Basin, Pakistan. Arab J Sci Eng 46, 5767–5781 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-020-05275-y

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