Austin Chalk Unconventional Oil and Gas Production Creating History The Austin Chalk has been producing oil and gas for the last century at a huge scale. With the advent of new techniques, the quantity even rose higher than the previous figures and made history. The largest field in this aspect is the Giddings field. The gas and oil produced from these specific areas are a little different from the conventional concept.
Unconventional Oil and Gas in the chalk The chalky layers are pervious rock formation and quite softer than the other types of rocks. The oil easily migrates and escapes inside the micro-fractures of soft chalks. Eventually, the fractures in the layers and porous intervals are filled with oil. Previously, the team of operators only worked on the fractured zones in the chalk layers were the oil and gas are deposited. These days, with the innovative tools and equipment, the porous intervals are now being easily targeted with the aid of modern large multi-stage fracture simulation. The new approach is offering brilliant results. Previously, the vertical wells were the only way to bring the oil out. It was a revolutionary idea that produced a lot of oil and brought a huge escalation in the production volume. The volume of production increased 20 times in 1975. The second change emerged when the horizontal drilling process began in 1989. The productivity increased manifold.
Innovation at its best The technology of horizontal drilling with the introduction of multi-stage fracture simulation created another revolution in the oil and gas industry. It is the largest innovation one has seen in this industry in five decades. The Austin Chalk oil and gas production took a final turn and started to resume a steep growth in the curve by producing Unconventional Oil and Gas. The generated amount of hydrocarbon is 1.7 MMBOPD since 2014. This only happened due to the innovation of horizontal drilling innovation alone.
SOURCE: - https://goo.gl/AF6zV1