Predicting Cumulative Producation of Devonian Shale gas Wells from Early Well Performance Data, Appalachian Basin of Eastern Kentucky

Middle and Late Devonian strata of the Appalachian Basin in the eastern United States are dominated by a sequence of black and gray shales. These low permeability, often organic-rich units are thought to be the source beds for much of the hydrocarbons produced in the basin. The shale itself can be a reservoir containing free gas in the natural fracture system, and adsorbed gas. Where the fractures in the shale are fluid filled, gas may also be dissolved in that fluid. The shale, however, is not ubiquitously productive. In areas of known production, like the Big Sandy Field of eastern Kentucky, there may exist areas of more prolific gas production. Natural gas production data sets available at the Kentucky Geological Survey will be analyzed to investigate the ability to predict the performance of Devonian shale gas wells in eastern Kentucky. In addition, these data will be spatial analyzed to identify better producing areas and make the attempt to relate those areas to geologic control affecting production.