Electron microscopy of shale hydrocarbon reservoirs / Электронная микроскопия сланцевых углеводородных резервуаров

Recent advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracture stimulation technology have opened up vast new oil and natural gas sources in shale formations. Shale gas production in the United States was 5 trillion cubic feet (141 billion m3) in 2010, representing 23% of the total U.S. dry-gas production (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2012). Shale gas production has also been established in Canada, and initial exploration drilling has begun outside North America, most notably in Poland, Argentina, India, Australia, and China.This so-called shale gale Yergin (2011) can also be measured by the increase in the number of active horizontal drilling rigs in the United States that surpassed the number of active vertical drilling rigs for the first time in 2009. During the first half of 2012, active vertical drilling rigs only accounted for 30% of the nearly 2000 total active United States rigs (Baker Hughes, 2012). <...>