Shale in a Nutshell- An overview of the major shale plays in the US

Presenter

Tim McMahon
Bureau of Economic Geology
Jackson School of Geosciences
The University of Texas at Austin

Description

Over the last 20 years, oil and gas production from shale reservoirs has grown from a small fraction to more than half of total U.S. hydrocarbon production. This presentation is an attempt to give a high-level overview of the development and current state of shale oil and gas in the United States. A brief history of hydrocarbon production from shale in the U.S. is given, which shows that the “shale revolution” was the product of more than two decades of experimentation and technology development, rather than an overnight success. A review of the basin development and geologic characteristics of major shale plays highlights that many of these “different” reservoirs were deposited in similar conditions and are sometimes stratigraphically equivalent. We end with a discussion of shale resource base and production trends.