PETROPHYSICS, VOL. 54, NO.

4 (AUGUST 2013); PAGE 368382; 21 FIGURES; 5 TABLES

Petrophysical Characterization of the Woodford Shale1

Nabanita Gupta2,3, Chandra S. Rai2, and Carl H. Sondergeld2

ABSTRACT
Despite the economic success in the Woodford Shale
play, variability in petrophysical parameters controlling
reservoir quality is poorly understood and hence,
exploration activities rely heavily on history matching.
This limits the identication of new sweetspots and also
expansion of exploration activities outside the proven area.
Here we present a set of laboratory-measured petrophysical
properties collected on 300 samples of the Woodford Shale
from six wells. This dataset provided an opportunity to
cluster the Woodford Shale in three different petrotypes
(good, intermediate and poor). Good correlations between
different petrotypes with geological core descriptions,
along with the good conformance between different
petrotypes with production data ascertain the practical
applicability of such petrotyping. It was possible to upscale
such petrotypes through calibration of well logs with
core measurements. Porosity, bulk density, grain density,
mineralogy, acoustic velocities (Vp-fast, Vs-fast and Vsslow), mercury-injection capillary pressure along with

INTRODUCTION
The Woodford Shale, which has long been known as
the source of most of Oklahomas hydrocarbon reserves,
emerged as resource play in its own right following the huge
success of the Barnett Shale play in 2005. Geographically,
the Woodford Shale play can be grouped into three regions:
Woodford, Cana-Woodford (Midwest) and Barnett Woodford
(Southwest), with estimated technically recoverable resource
as 22.21 Tcf, 5.72 Tcf and 32.15 Tcf, respectively (EIA,
2011). This study focuses on an area in the Midwest where
the shale is reported to produce dry gas, condensate as well
and oil and has an average thickness of 200 ft.
The Woodford Shale is not only characterized by highly
heterogeneous nature but also acts as the source, seal, and
reservoir, which make it difcult to identify or rather, dene
the reservoir unit within this rock. Appropriate petrophysical
characterization leads to identication of different petrotypes

total organic carbon content (TOC), Rock-Eval pyrolysis,

and vitrinite reectance were measured. Visual inspections
were made at the macroscopic-, microscopic- and SEMscale in order to calibrate petrophysical properties with the
actual rock architecture.
Mineralogically, the Woodford Shale is a silicadominated system with very little carbonate present.
Crossplots of porosity and TOC clearly separate the lower
thermal maturity (oil window) samples from higher thermal
maturity (wet gas-condensate window) as porosity is
lower at lower thermal maturity. Independent observations
made through SEM imaging conrm much lower organic
porosity at lower thermal maturity, while organic pores
are the dominant pore types in all samples irrespective of
thermal maturity. Crack-like pores are only observed in
the oil window. Cluster analyses of TOC, porosity, clay
and quartz content revealed three clusters of rocks, which
can be ranked as good, intermediate and poor in terms of
reservoir quality.

with unique petrophysical properties, which eventually can

help to identify sweetspots and to decide appropriate areas
for well placement. As production from these shales requires
stimulation through hydraulic fracturing, appropriate
petrophysical models should help to predict hydrocarbon
reserves as well as areas/intervals with high fracability.
Centimeter-scale vertical heterogeneity of resourceshales limits the use of eld-scale measurements and
misrepresents the petrophysical characterization of such
shales to some extent. Petrophysical characterization based
on measured petrophysical properties from representative
samples of individual lithofacies/petrotypes helps to
identify and estimate the range of values for parameters
which correlate strongly with reservoir-evaluation attributes
such as, gas-in-place and fracability, the two important
parameters for assessing the resource potential of shales.
Such laboratory-based measurements and analyses require
a large dataset, which makes characterization of resource

Manuscript received by the Editor April 11, 2013; revised manuscript received June 10, 2013.
1
Originally presented at the 53rd Annual Logging Symposium, Cartagena, Colombia, June 16-20, Paper LLL
2
Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering, University of Oklahoma, SEC-1210, Sarkeys Energy Center, 100
E. Boyd St., Norman, OK 73019-1003, USA; Email: nabanitag@gmail.com; crai@ou.edu; csondergeld@ou.edu
3
Now at Shell Oil Company, 25519 Somerset Meadows Ct., Katy, Tx 77494, USA; Email: Nabanita.gupta@shell.com

368

PETROPHYSICS

August 2013

Petrophysical Characterization of the Woodford Shale

shales time-intensive but necessary for the proper evaluation

of these potential reservoirs (Kale, 2009).
STUDY AREA
The Woodford Shale was deposited in the paleoOklahoma Basin which was covered by an epeiric sea during
global sea-level transgression (Lambert, 1993; Johnson,
1988) (Fig. 1). Different petrotypes are expected in marine
depositional settings (horizontal variability) as well as in
different stages of the transgression (vertical variability).
Cores collected from six wells located in both hydrocarbonproducing and nonproducing areas (approximately 1,440
mi2) were used in this study (Fig. 2). Thermal maturity of the
Woodford Shale in Wells 1, 2, 3, and 6 are within the drygas/condensate maturity window, whereas Wells 4 and 5 are
within the oil window. Samples were collected from ~200
ft of continuous core acquired from Wells 1 through 3. For
Wells 4, 5, and 6 samples were collected from cores taken at
discrete depth intervals.
After careful visual inspection of the cores,
approximately 300 samples were collected at 2 ft intervals
in the visually monotonous interval and intermittent samples
were collected where there were visually obvious changes in
lithology. It is worth mentioning here that sometimes it is
possible to miss changes in lithology due to the dark color
of the rock. Sharp changes in petrophysical properties along
with inspection of microscopic properties were used to track
signicant but nonvisible lithologic changes.

Fig. 1Geology of the study area. (a) Paleogeography of North

America at the beginning of late Devonian (Frasnian). The paleolocation
of Oklahoma is marked with red outline (modied from Comer, 2007).
(b) During Late Devonian-Early Mississippian time the Oklahoma Basin
covered a vast area of the southern Midcontinent. The Oklahoma
Basin was later divided into a number of sub-basins as the result of
tectonic activity (modied from Johnson, 1988). (c) Isochore map of the
Woodford Shale in Oklahoma (modied from Comer, 2007).

August 2013

Fig. 2Locations of the six cored wells used in this study.

LABORATORY MEASUREMENTS
A set of petrophysical properties impacting two critical
reservoir-assessment categories, i.e., storage capacity and
ow capacity, were measured: crushed rock porosity (I),
(bulk density (b), grain density (g) (Karastathis, 2007;
Kale, 2009), mineralogy through Fourier Transform InfraRed transmission spectroscopy (FTIR) (Ballard, 2007;
Matteson and Herron, 1993; Sondergeld and Rai, 1993),
acoustic velocities (Vp-fast, Vs-fast and Vs-slow) (Birch,
1960; Schreiber et al., 1973; Raina, 2010), total organic
carbon (TOC) content, Rock-Eval analyses, and mercuryinjection capillary pressure (MICP) (Kale, 2009). In
addition, microscopic and submicroscopic inspections of
samples were conducted through petrographic analyses of
thin sections and scanning electron microscopic (SEM)
analyses of focused ion beam (FIB) milled samples. Nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements were performed
on a few samples to gain knowledge of shale wettability.
Most of these measurements were made at the Integrated
Core Characterization Center (IC3) at the University of
Oklahoma. The organic content (TOC) and Rock-Eval
measurements were made at a commercial laboratory.
Dynamic elastic moduli calculated from ultrasonic acoustic
velocities provide indirect estimates for rock-mechanical
characteristics.
Crushed rock porosity (I) represents the total porosity
of shales and includes the free and capillary-bound pore
spaces but excludes the spaces occupied by clay-bound
water. The FTIR mineralogy system was setup to identify 16
common rock-forming minerals, which were grouped into
ve mineral groups (Table 1).

PETROPHYSICS

369

Gupta et al.

Core plugs were subjected to increasing conning

pressure in eight steps, from 250 to 5,000 psi, and ultrasonic
data were collected at each step using an ultrasonic-pulse
transmission technique. In addition to the capillary pressure,
the MICP measurements also allowed calculation of the
pore-throat diameter using the Washburn equation

Table 1Minerals Identied Through FTIR

r=

2kcos
Pcap

(1)

where, Pcap is the capillary pressure (psi), is interfacial

tension, 480 dyne/cm for mercury; k = 0.145; and is the
contact angle, 140 for mercury; and r is the pore-throat
radius (m). Hence, knowing the pressure at which intrusion
takes place allows calculation of the pore-throat radius. For
example, at 60,000 psi mercury enters pores with throat
diameters of 3 nm.
RESULTS
Tables 2 and 3 summarize the sample distribution for the
laboratory-measured petrophysical properties, in the studied
wells.
Table 2Number of Samples Used in Laboratory Measurements of
Petrophysical Properties

For this study, the ultrasonic measurements were

performed on horizontal plugs: One compressional (Vp-fast)
and two orthogonally polarized shear-wave velocities (Vsfast and Vs-slow) were measured (Fig. 3).

Table 3Summary of Laboratory-Measured Petrophysical Properties

for the Wells Studied

Fig. 3Schematic diagram showing the orientation of core plugs (left);

Vp-fast and Vs-fast are fast compressional and shear-wave velocities,
Vs-slow is the slow shear, where the particle movement is perpendicular
to the bedding and the wave is travelling parallel to the bedding (center),
and the principal directions and the required elastic constants for
anisotropic characterization of the shales (right).

370

PETROPHYSICS

August 2013

Petrophysical Characterization of the Woodford Shale

Porosity
Porosity (I) ranges between 0 and 10% and shows a
normal distribution, especially when wells with high organic
maturity are considered. The porosity of samples from wells
with low thermal maturity fall into a different distribution.
In wells with high thermal maturity (Wells 1, 2, 3, and 6),
porosity ranges from 2 to 10% and averages 6%. For wells
within the oil window (Wells 4 and 5) porosity ranges from
0 to 5% and averages 2.7%.
Density
Bulk density ranges from 2.2 to 2.9 g/cm3, averaging 2.4
g/cm3; grain density ranges from 2.4 to 3 g/cm3, averaging
2.6 g/cm3.
Mineralogy
Figures 4 through 6 summarize the mineralogy listed
in Table 1. Individual mineral weight percentages for
Wells 1 through 6, located in different parts of the basin,
show an overall narrow spread while quartz and illite
show comparatively wider spread (Fig. 4a). Fig. 4b shows
distributions of ve group of minerals mentioned in Table 1.
Despite the narrow range in mineralogy, plots of mineral wt%
vs. depth for Wells 1, 2 and 3 (Fig. 5) show strong variations.
For example, Well 3 has a higher clay concentration
compared to Wells 1 and 2, and there is a signicant decease
in clay concentration with shallower depths in Well 2.

Fig. 4Box-and-whisker plots showing (a) distributions of different

minerals measured through FTIR, and (b) distributions of the ve
mineral groups shown in Table 1.

August 2013

Fig. 5Variation in mineralogy with depth in Wells 1, 2, and 3.

Ternary plots indicate that the Woodford Shale is a

silica-dominated system with <20% carbonate except for a
few samples (Fig. 6a). The highly calcareous samples are
located near the boundary of the Woodford Shale and the
underlying Hunton Limestone. Figure 6a shows that Wells 3
and 4 have a higher percentage of clay compared to Wells 1
and 5, and that Well 2 has a wider range of clay concentration.
Overall, the percentage of clay ranges from 20 to 70%.
Clays are dominantly illite, with some mixed clays and little
to no kaolinite (Figure 6b). Dolomite and siderite are the
dominant carbonate minerals with <40% calcite (Fig. 6c).
Two dominate minerals, quartz and total clays, are inversely
proportional to each other (Fig. 7).

Fig. 6Ternary plots showing the distributions of mineralogy. (a)

Quartz+feldpar, clays, and carbonates. Note, the Woodford is a silicadominated system with little carbonate. Total carbonate is <20% except
for few samples. (b) Distribution of different clay minerals. (c) Distribution
of different carbonate minerals.

PETROPHYSICS

371

Gupta et al.

It was not possible to obtain three sets of plugs

(horizontal, vertical and 45) required to measure the ve
independent elastic moduli that are needed to fully dene the
characteristic transverse anisotropy of shales. The ne-scale
heterogeneity of the shale (a) makes it difcult to acquire
equivalent core plugs with different orientations, and (b)
results in samples that are biased toward the more competent
strata.

Fig. 7Crossplot of quartz vs. clays, the two dominant minerals in the
Wells 1 through 6, indicates that these two parameters are inversely
related.

Ultrasonic Velocity Measurements

Native-state acoustic velocities were measured on
horizontal core plugs from Wells 1 and 3; 84 velocity
measurements were performed. Core plugs required for
these measurements could not be recovered from the other
studied well. The velocity ranges and averages are listed in
Table 4.
Table 4Range and Average of Ultrasonic Velocity Measurements

Ultrasonic velocity measurements show little pressure

dependence (Fig. 8). A small increase in velocity at low
conning pressure (Pc) is most likely due to closures of
desiccation cracks. Such characters are observed specially
in samples with higher clay concentration.

Total Organic Carbon

TOC ranges between 0 and 14 wt%. High TOC values
indicate that a signicant volume fraction of the rock is
organic matter since the density of organic matter (1 g/cm3)
is much lower than the density of common rock-forming
minerals (Sondergeld et al., 2010). This implies that the
petrophysical properties of organic matter signicantly
affect the overall rock petrophysical properties. Moreover,
SEM imaging has revealed large numbers of pores within
the organic matter, which further increases the volume of
organic matter for a given wt% TOC (Gupta, 2012).
Rock-Eval Analysis
Rock Eval was been performed on 150 samples. In this
experiment, organic matter was pyrolized with step increase
in temperature. The amplitudes of S1, S2 and S3 peaks
recorded in this experiment are representative of liquid
hydrocarbons present in the rock, the amount of convertible
kerogen, and the amount of inorganic carbon dioxide
released, respectively. The temperature for the highest S2
peak represents thermal maturity (Tmax). Average Tmax for the
studied Wells 1 through 5 are 467C, 458C, 466C, 439C
and 441C, and the equivalent Ro values are 1.25%, 0.99%,
1.23%, 0.74% and 0.78%. Tmax is converted to equivalent
vitrinite reectance value through the following equation
Ro (%) = (0.018 x Tmax) - 7.16 (Espitalie, 1986).

Fig. 8Ultrasonic velocities plotted as a function of conning pressure.

Both (a) compressional-wave, Vp-fast , and (b) shear-wave, Vs-fast,
velocities exhibit weak dependence on pressure. Different colors
represent samples with different clay concentrations. Note the small
increase in velocities (primarily compressional) at low conning pressure
for samples with higher clay concentrations.

372

(1)

For Wells 1, 2 and 3, S2 peaks are either too low or form a

plateau and lack any peak (characteristics of high thermal
maturity) (Fig. 9). Consequently limited condence should
be assigned to S2 values and Tmax derived from this S2 peak.
Also quantitative use of these parameters should be limited.
Measured Ro for Wells 1 through 6 are 1.62%, ~1.6%,
1.67%, 0.54%, 0.54% (Comer, personal communication).
Jarvie (1991) mentioned that for high-maturity samples
microscopic estimation of Ro is more reliable than RockEval analyses. However, for consistency, such measurements
should be made by the same individual to reduce human
error.

PETROPHYSICS

August 2013

Petrophysical Characterization of the Woodford Shale

Fig. 9Pyrograms for samples in (a) Well 4 showing distinct S1 and S2

peaks respectively from left to right, and (b) Well 1, note the low S2 peak.

Both vitrinite reectance (Ro) and average Tmax values

indicate that Wells 1 through 3 and 6 are in condensate/wetgas window and that Wells 4 and 5 are in the oil window.
However, over a 300 ft interval, the average thickness of
the Woodford Shale in the study area, thermal maturity may
vary. Figure 10 indicates that Wells 4 and 5 have Type II
kerogen whereas the high maturity wells falls near the origin
and shows a wide range of kerogen type; this plot represents
the present day organic matter type. Jarvie et al. (2007)
documented that thermal maturity as well as expulsion of
hydrocarbon from rocks affect the chemical composition of
kerogen and make it difcult, if not impossible, to recognize
original kerogen type in highly thermally mature samples.
Since, low maturity samples are plotted as Type II, starting
material for the highly thermally mature samples are also
interpreted to be Type II. The facts that Type II kerogen
results primarily from marine source and the Wells 4 and
5 are located near-shore compared to Wells 1, 2, 3 and 6
which are located deeper marine, further ensure that starting
organic matter in the studied wells is Type II. Overall, the
wells are grouped into two ranges of maturity: highly mature
(Wells 1, 2, 3 and 6) and low mature (Wells 4 and 5). Original
kerogen type has been interpreted as Type II.

matter within the self-sustained resource-shale petroleum

system. Hence, the concentration of organic matter (TOC)
directly affects the potential volume of hydrocarbon present
within the system. However, there is no tool to directly
measure either porosity in shale or TOC at the eld-scale and
it is economically impossible to collect core or laboratory
data from each well. Here we evaluate correlations between
these two properties and other petrophysical properties in
order to identify petrophysical parameters that will allow us
to estimate porosity and TOC.
The crossplot of TOC and I (Fig. 11) shows porosity
increasing with TOC. The correlation between TOC
and porosity improves when wells with similar thermal
maturities are considered. Overall, samples with lower
thermal maturity (wells within oil window) contain lower
I compared to samples with higher thermal maturity (wetgas/condensate window) as additional pore space is created
within the organic matter as more hydrocarbon is expelled
with increasing thermal maturity. The good correlation
between TOC and porosity is supported by the fact that
organic pores are the dominant pore types in this resource
shale, as observed through SEM imaging (Gupta, 2012).
Previous authors (Curtis et al., 2011; Loucks et al., 2009;
Passey et al., 2010) have observed that organic pores are
also the most dominant pore type in other resource shales.
Although overall porosity increases with thermal maturity,
SEM imaging has revealed a more complex aspect of this
porosity development (Gupta, 2012).

Mercury-Injection Capillary Pressure (MICP)

MICP measurements show absolutely no mercury
intrusion below 10,000 psi conning pressure, indicating
pore throats are smaller than 0.01 m. This is equivalent to
a matrix permeability of a few hundred nanodarcies. The
different shapes of the capillary-pressure curve represent
different pore-throat sizes and distributions that have been
used for petrotyping.
DISCUSSION
We focus our discussion on distinguishing the essential
petrophysical properties and their effect on two critical
components of unconventional resource-shales, (1) storage
capacity, and (2) deliverability. Similar to other petroleum
systems, porosity (I) is directly related to storage capacity.
On the other hand, hydrocarbon is generated from organic

August 2013

Fig. 10Crossplot of hydrogen index (HI) and Tmax. Wells 1 through

3 and 6 are at higher maturity levels compared to Wells 4 and 5. HI is
calculated using the following S2 x 100/TOC, mg HC/g TOC.

PETROPHYSICS

373

Gupta et al.

concentration compared to the second cluster. The crossplot

of porosity vs. quartz (Fig. 13) does not show any apparent
correlation. The correlation between porosity and quartz
improves when the data are divided into two groups (1)
rocks with a quartz concentration <40%, porosity increasing
with increasing quartz concentration, and (2) rocks with
a quartz concentration >40%, porosity decreasing with
increasing quartz. Overall, the rst group of rocks contains
high clay percentages, indicating that most of the samples
from this group also belong to cluster 1 on the porosityclay crossplot (Fig. 12).
Fig. 11Crossplot of core porosity (I) vs. TOC shows a good correlation
between these parameters. The red circles represent data from the high
thermal-maturity wells (Wells 1, 2, 3, and 6). The cyan points are from
the low thermal-maturity wells (Wells 4 and 5). The equations for tted
regression lines are I = 0.54 x TOC + 3.22 (red); I = 0.83 x TOC - 1.98
(cyan).

Crossplots of porosity and mineralogical composition

reveal complex relationships between porosity and the two
dominate minerals: quartz and total clays. A crossplot of
I vs. clays indicates overall increasing I with increasing
clay concentration (Fig. 12). A similar correlation has
been observed in the Barnett Shale (Kale, 2009) and in the
Thirteen Finger Limestone (Raina, 2010).

Fig. 12Crossplot of core porosity (IHe) vs. total clays. Data are colored
with quartz content (wt%). Data bounded by the two ellipses indicate
two clusters of rocks. The cluster with higher clay concentration is
characterized by low quartz concentration and the other cluster with
lower clay concentration is characterized by higher quartz concentration.
Points marked by 1 indicate carbonate-rich samples characterized by
both low clays and low quartz concentrations.

A closer look of the crossplot of porosity vs. clay

indicates two clusters of rocks (1) rocks where the clay
concentration is <42%, porosity increases with increasing
clay concentration, and (2) where clay concentration is
>42%, porosity decreases with increasing clay concentration.
The rst cluster is also characterized by overall high quartz

374

Fig. 13Crossplot of core porosity (I) vs. quartz. The crossplot exhibits
two clusters of rocks as shown by the two ellipses. IHe increases with
increasing quartz for quartz concentration <40%, and decreases with
increasing quartz for quartz concentrations >40%.

As stated previously, the concentration of TOC directly

affects the presence of hydrocarbon within self-sustained
resource shales. TOC is also correlated with porosity and
increases with increasing porosity (Fig. 11). In general,
TOC increases with increasing clay content, as observed in
other resource shales (Kale, 2009; Raina, 2010). However,
the crossplot of TOC vs. clays (Fig. 14a) indicates a more
subtle correlation between TOC and clay content for the
studied shale. The crossplot indicates three clusters of rocks
with unique correlations between these two parameters.
Cluster 1 consists of rocks with low clay concentration
(0%<clays<24%) is characterized by low TOC. TOC does
not show any correlation with clays for this group of rocks.
Cluster 2 rocks have an intermediate clay concentration
(8%<clays<48%) and TOC increases with increasing clay
content. Cluster 3 rocks are clay-rich (clays >44%) having
a wide range of TOC (0 to 14%). However, TOC does not
show much dependence on clay content.
Crossplots of TOC vs. quartz show a poor apparent
correlation between these parameters. The correlation
improves when the data are broken into three clusters (Fig.
14b). Cluster 1 consists of rocks with <25% quartz and
TOC shows a generally increasing trend with increasing
quartz content. This group is also characterized by high clay

PETROPHYSICS

August 2013

Petrophysical Characterization of the Woodford Shale

content. Cluster 2 includes rocks with 24%<quartz<58% and

TOC shows good linear dependence on quartz concentration,
increasing with increasing quartz concentration. This
group of rock is also characterized by intermediate clay
content. Cluster 3 consists of rocks with high quartz
content (quartz >58%) and TOC decreasing with increasing
quartz concentration. This group has low clay content and
TOC is low, in general, Cluster 3 is representative of the
characteristic cherty facies of the Woodford Shale (Hoeve et
al., 2011; Gupta, 2012).

In this study, ultrasonic velocities were measured

on horizontal core plugs collected from Wells 1 and 3.
Crossplots of ultrasonic velocities, elastic moduli with
other petrophysical parameters indicate that both porosity
and TOC vary inversely with both Vp and Vs. Youngs
modulus (E) is inversely proportional with TOC for E <60
GPa and TOC >4% (Fig. 15). The combination of Youngs
modulus and Poissons ratio is commonly used to dene
rock brittleness, i.e., rocks with a high Youngs modulus
and low Poissons ratio are dened as brittle, and thus are
easily fractured compared to ductile rocks, i.e., those with
a low Youngs modulus and high Poissons ratio (Rickman
et al., 2008). For the Woodford Shale, Poissons ratio varies
between 0.05 and 0.16, Vp-fast/Vs-fast ranges between 1.4
and 1.65, and Youngs modulus varies between 36 and 80
GPa. Due to the narrow range in both Poissons ratio and Vp/
Vs, brittleness of the Woodford Shale is largely dictated by
the value of Youngs modulus.

Fig. 14Crossplots of TOC vs clays (a) and TOC vs. quartz (b). Data
are colored with quartz and clay content in (a) and (b), respectively.
Crossplots indicate more than one cluster of data as bounded by the
ellipses.

TOC does not show any correction with total carbonate,

which is expected, as the geologic history indicates silicashelled organisms dominated the Woodford Sea (Lambert,
1993; Sullivan, 2006; Gupta, 2012). These silica-shelled
organisms along with marine algae (e.g., Tasmenities) are the
source of the TOC in the Woodford Shale. Carbonate-shelled
organisms had limited existence in the study area (Sullivan,
2006; Comer, 2007). The primary source of carbonate was
detrital (Comer, 2007) along with some diagenetic dolomite,
and aragonite which formed as byproduct of bacterial
activities in the upper few centimeter of sediment column
(Gupta, 2012).
The geologic history of the study area indicates two
sources of silica: biogenic and detrital (Caldwell, 2011;
Gupta, 2012). For the group of rocks with intermediate clay
and quartz content (8%<clays<48% and 24%<quartz<58%),
increasing trends of TOC with increasing quartz content
indicate that biogenic silica dominates. As increasing quartz
content also increases the brittleness of the rock (Sondergeld
et al., 2010) this group of rocks is also characterized by
increasing brittleness with increasing potential for the
presence of hydrocarbon. The brittle nature of these rocks
makes it easier to initiate hydraulic, which improves
hydrocarbon deliverability. Brittleness is largely a function
of mineralogy and the rock mechanical properties. Dynamic
elastic moduli calculated from acoustic velocities provide an
indirect estimate of mechanical properties.

August 2013

Fig. 15Crossplots of (a) Vp-fast vs. TOC; (b) Vs-fast vs. TOC; (c)
shear-wave anisotropy vs. clay; and (d) Youngs modulus vs. TOC. Black
circles indicate possible different rock types holding unique a correlation
between different petrophysical parameters. Data are colored with IHe,
as indicated on the color bar.

Detailed core descriptions of Well 3 reveal that only

layer-bound natural fractures are present in two intervals
where some siliceous laminae/cherty layers are present with
alternate mudstone (Fig. 16). Although it was not possible

PETROPHYSICS

375

Gupta et al.

to collect plugs and ultrasonic measurements from the thin

brittle layers, mineralogy data conrms high quartz content
of those siliceous layers.

Type A. Incremental Hg-intrusion plot increases

monotonously and does not reach a plateau even at 60,000
psi pressure (Fig. 17a). This indicates that the pore-throat
diameters are either smaller than 3 nm or that pores were
initially larger than 3 nm and were compressed in response
to increasing conning pressure during the experiment.
Type B. For this curve type the incremental Hg-intrusion plot
reaches a plateau (Fig 17b) indicating that pore throats in
this group are larger than 3 nm. This also implies that this
group has the highest permeability. In addition, this group is
also associated with the highest porosity rangeI = 9.3%
for the example shown in Fig. 17b.

Fig. 16(a) Core sample from Well 3 showing small-scale faulting

bounded within the brittle layer. Red dashed lines indicate the boundaries
between more brittle (central interval), less brittle and ultimately to the
black mudstone, yellow lines indicate vertical-bound fractures within the
brittle layer; coin is for scale. (b) Schematic representation of picture (a).

Mercury-Injection Capillary Pressure (MICP)

The complex nature of resource-shales limits the
quantitative use of capillary-pressure data. However, the
shape of the capillary-pressure curves provides an indicator
of different petrotypes. Three groups of rocks have been
identied on the basis of capillary-pressure-curve shape.
Typical characteristics of these curves are described below
(Fig. 17):

Type C. The incremental Hg-intrusion plot has a similar

shape as Type A (Figs. 17a, c). However, they show false
intrusion, which can be conrmed from the cumulative Hgintrusion curve (right-hand gure of Fig. 17c). The saturation
and desaturation cumulative intrusion curves almost follow
each other without much separation between them (lack
of hysteresis). Lack of hysteresis between the two curves
indicates false intrusion. Signicant hysteresis is observed
in cumulative Hg-intrusion curve Type A. This group also
shows very little Hg-intrusion (<0.0005 ml/g of sample);
such small volume also indicates that Hg did not actually
intrude the sample and the Hg-intrusion is not real.
MICP Types A, B and C have been observed in the
Barnett Shale from the Fort Worth Basin (Kale et al., 2010).
In this study it has been observed in all samples that the
intruded Hg volume is smaller compared to the porosity
volume. This implies that either pores are poorly connected
or pore throats are smaller than 3 nm.
PETROTYPING

Fig. 17Examples of MICP curve-types A through C in gures (a)

through (c), respectively.

376

It is obvious from the previous discussion that there are

at least two statistical clusters that may indicate different
petrotypes. Petrotypes are dened as rock units deposited
under similar conditions, and which have experienced similar
diagenetic processes, that possess unique sets of petrophysical
properties (Gunter et al., 1997). Previous authors (Pittman,
1992; Amaefule et al., 1993; Gunter et al., 1997; and Rushing
et al., 2008) have described quantitative methods to identify
different petrotypes in conventional reservoirs. However,
standard petrotyping workows are inapplicable for the
unconventional Woodford Shale system. Two major issues
that makes conventional petrotyping principles unusable for
the self-sustained resource-shale petroleum systems are (1)
a large dependence on the dynamic range of porosity and
permeability commonly observed in conventional reservoirs
and the narrow range of porosity and permeability observed

PETROPHYSICS

August 2013

Petrophysical Characterization of the Woodford Shale

in resource shales, and (2) typically there has not been an

evaluation of the mechanical properties of rocks that play
an important role in hydrocarbon production from resource
shales. We have used cluster analyses of the principal
petrophysical properties to quantitatively recognize different
petrotypes within the Woodford Shale in the study area.
Kale (2009) applied a similar cluster-analysis technique to
identify different petrotypes within the Barnett Shale.
Petrophysical analysis discussed in the previous sections
show that only few petrophysical parameters show signicant
dynamic range to be useful for identifying different group of
rocks, such as: I, TOC, quartz, illite, smectite-mixed clays,
total clays. Mineralogy data from Wells 1 through 6, located
in different part of the basin, show that illite is the most
dominant clay mineral and hence, total clay instead of illite
have been used for cluster analyses. Previous studies (Kale,
2009; Raina, 2010; Sondhi, 2011) on other resource shales
also indicate that wide range of porosity, total organic carbon
content, and mineralogy are useful in dening different
petrotypes within resource shales. Cluster analysis of
different parameters using Gaussian k-means classication
method (Bradley and Mangasarian, 2000) ultimately helped
us to quantitatively dene these petrotypes. The Gaussian
k-means classication method analyzes N data points
located in I dimensional space and then classies them
into K clusters, so that the variance between any two
members from two different groups are more than the
variance between any two members of the same group (N, I
and K are any integers). Three rock groups, i.e., petrotypes,
(K = 3) have been identied through this technique using
four petrophysical parameters (I = 4): I, TOC, quartz, and
clays.
Table 3 summarizes the petrophysical properties of
the petrotypes identied through cluster analysis. Figure
18 shows the petrophysical characteristics of different
petrotypes identied through cluster analysis. Petrotype 1
shows an intermediate clay content (20%<clay<53%) and
quartz content (26%<quartz<55%) with high porosity and
high TOC values (average TOC 7.5%). In this petrotype
TOC increases proportionally with quartz (Fig. 18d), which
enhances the brittleness of the host rock. Such petrophysical
properties indicate that this rock type will offer good
reservoir properties. Petrotype 2 has a wider range of porosity
(2.4 to 9%) and TOC (0 to 13%). However, this petrotype
is characterized by high clay concentration >42% (90%
condence interval) (Fig. 18c). Measured petrophysical
properties indicate that Petrotype 3 is characterized by both
low porosity and TOC values. The organic matter in this
petrotype contains large micrometer size pores identied
through SEM imaging. The low porosity values are due to
overall low TOC content of this lithofacies. The high quartz
content of this lithofacies (Fig. 16a) makes it the most brittle
petrotype.
August 2013

Fig. 18Crossplots of (a) clay vs. quartz, (b) porosity vs. quartz,; (c)
clay vs. TOC, and (d) quartz vs. TOC. These crossplots indicate three
petrotypes identied through cluster analyses. In (a), Petrotypes 1
through 3 are colored pink, green and red, respectively. Figure 18a
indicates that each petrotype is characterized by unique range of clay
and quartz concentrations.

Reservoir qualities indicated by petrophysical properties

also correspond to the production data. For example, Well
3, which contains the greatest thickness of the clay-rich
Petrotype 2, was reported as dry well. The thicknesses of
different the petrotypes within the Woodford interval in
Well 2 are 18%, 78% and 4%, respectively, for Petrotypes
1 through 3. In contrast, Well 1, which contains the greatest
thickness of Petrotype 1, is hydrocarbon producing. The
thicknesses of the different petrotypes within the Woodford
interval Well 1 are 66%, 16% and 18%, respectively, for
Petrotypes 1 through 3.
Good correlations between these different rock groups
together with the geologic history indicate that these
petrotypes are indeed indicating different petrotypes that are
important for reservoir evaluation purposes. For example,
Petrotype 3 represents the cherty mudstone lithofacies,
characterized by high quartz content and low TOC, while
Petrotypes 1 and 2 represent the black mudstone facies.
Visual inspections of subsurface cores reveal that the cherty
mudstone facies is typically centimeters thick; this thin nature
of this lithofacies makes it difcult to measure petrophysical
properties of this lithofacies even at the laboratory-scale.
Integration of geologic analyses will help in this regard, as
it provides a systematic approach to understand the presence
of different lithofacies.
From a petrophysical perspective, Petrotype 1 is the best
reservoir followed by Petrotype 2. TOC-rich intervals for
both petrotypes are characterized by a low Youngs modulus,

PETROPHYSICS

377

Gupta et al.

a high Poissons ratio, and high Vp/Vs ratio and thus dened as
ductile (Fig. 19). In order to initiate hydraulic fracturing and
produce hydrocarbons from these otherwise impermeable
resource shales, the ductile hydrocarbon/TOC-enriched
intervals require intervening brittle layers. Consequently,
the vertical juxtaposition of petrotypes with contrasting
mechanical properties (brittle versus ductile) will improve
the reservoir quality of resource shales. Among the studied
wells, the best producing well, Well 2, is characterized by
broadest distribution of petrophysical parameters, thus
indicating the presence of different petrotypes within the
producing Woodford Shale interval. On the other hand,
despite the presence of good reservoir storage capacity
(based on the concentration of TOC and porosity) Well 3
is nonproductive. The lack of contrasting petrotypes in the
vertical Woodford section combined with high clay content
limited the effectiveness of hydraulic fracturing in this well.
This is an ideal example of a well with good storage capacity
and zero hydrocarbon production due to inability to initiate
hydraulic fracturing. Petrotyping was not performed on Well
6, located between Wells 2 and 3 (Fig. 2), due to limited
sample availability.

CALIBRATION OF PETROTYPES WITH

MICP DATA
MICP measurements were performed on 110 samples
and the MICP characteristics of each petrotype are
summarized in Table 5. Petrotype 3 is represented by MICP
Type C, Petrotype 2 is represented by MICP Type A, and
Rock Type 1 contains almost equal quantity of MICP Type
A and MICP Type B. MICP Type C indicates the poorest
connectivity between pores. Although SEM imaging has
revealed micrometer size pores within Petrotype 3, poor
connectivity between those pores (as indicated by MICP
Type C) reduces the reservoir quality of this petrotype.
MICP Type A (Fig. 17a) indicates pore throats smaller than
3 nm, which resulted from nanometer-size pores present in
the studied rocks and as observed through SEM-imaging.
MICP Type B (Figure 15b) is indicative of slightly larger
pore-throat diameters and is most common within Petrotype
1, in comparison with Petrotypes 2 and 3. Hence, presence
of rocks with MICP Type B improves reservoir quality. This
integration of petrotype with the MICP curve type improves
our understanding about individual petrotypes.
Table 5Distribution of MICP Curve Types Within Each Petrotype

WELL-LOG ANALYSIS

Fig. 19Crossplots of (a) Youngs modulus vs. Poissons ratio, and (b)
Youngs modulus vs Vp-fast/Vs-fast ratio. Circle size is proportional to
TOC concentration.

378

Generating a large dataset of core-based measurements

is expensive and time consuming and not possible in every
situation. For practical application, the petrotypes derived
from core-based petrotyping must be correlated to well
logs to enable prediction of the petrophysical properties in
uncored intervals. However, only a limited suite of well
logs from one well (Well 1) was available and well-log
petrotyping could not be performed. Well logs were used
in combination with core data to calculate uid density and
TOC and to identify well-log signatures of the petrotypes
identied from core data.
Well-log data were rst shifted to core depth prior to
integrating well logs with core data. Depth shifting is critical
in these very heterogeneous rocks and it is obvious that
the correlation between core and well log, as well as any
analyses involving both core and well-log data, will improve

PETROPHYSICS

August 2013

Petrophysical Characterization of the Woodford Shale

with high-precision depth shifting. In this study, depth

shifting was performed using high-resolution gamma-ray
correlation.
Total Organic Carbon (TOC)
Good correlations between TOC and b and Vp (Figure
13a) indicate that these two parameters can be used to
estimate TOC from well logs. TOC is calculated from both
compressional velocity-deep resistivity and bulk densitydeep resistivity pairs using Passey method (Passey et al.,
1990). Ultimately TOC is estimated at well-log scale by
taking arithmetic average from these two sources and
calibrating it with the core measured TOC. This well-log
derived TOC can be used in combination with Well-log
measured quartz and clay content in order to identify similar
petrotypes at well-log scale as identied based on core data.
Well-Log Rock-Type Signatures of Different Petrotypes
Plotting TOC against deep resistivity (AT90) Petrotype
1 shows the highest resistivity values compared to Petrotypes
2 and 3 (Fig. 20). Intervals containing Petrotype 3, which
characterized by high resistivity, low clay concentration,
and high porosity (>6.5%), are the highest quality reservoir
intervals. High resistivity values coupled with low clay
concentration, high porosity, and high TOC in these intervals
indicate that the high resistivity values result from the
hydrocarbon enrichment. Most of these intervals are located
within the middle Woodford interval, indicating that this is
the most productive interval, at least in this well (Fig. 21).
Good reservoir intervals alternating with intervals of high
Youngs modulus and low Poissons ratio can be used to
identify the intervals within the middle Woodford with the
highest potential (sweetspots) for placing the horizontal
well (Fig. 21). Finally it can be stated that, this analysis
highlights the ability to detect reservoir intervals within the
Woodford Shale when well logs are used in combination
with laboratory-measured core data.
CONCLUSIONS
Petrophysical properties measured on carefully collected
samples indicated that porosity, TOC, quartz and clay
concentration are critical parameters for identifying different
petrotypes within the Woodford Shale play. Three petrotypes
have been identied through cluster analyses of these four
parameters. A petrotype with intermediate concentrations of
clay and quartz is identied as the highest potential reservoir
rock. A proportional increase in TOC with increasing quartz
concentration in this petrotype ensures the brittle nature of
TOC-rich intervals.
Dynamic elastic moduli calculated from ultrasonic

August 2013

Fig. 20Crossplot of laboratory-measured total organic carbon

(TOC) with well-log measured deep resistivity (AT90). Data-point size
is proportional to clay concentration. Data points in the yellow ellipse
indicate good reservoir rocks characterized by high porosity (>6.5%),
data points in the purple ellipse are characterized by very low porosity
(~2%).

measurements indicate the ductile nature of the typical

TOC-rich interval. Consequently, intervals with the highquality reservoir potential (intervals with good petrotype),
i.e., sweetspots that are ideal intervals for initiating
hydraulic fracturing, are those with alternating brittle layers
(cherty mudstone facies). This is in contrast to conventional
reservoirs where intervals with highest net-to-gross are
considered the best intervals for hydrocarbon exploration
and production. Geologic analyses indicate that the cherty
mudstone facies, which represents storm-related deposits
that formed in depressions on the basin oor, makes the
best well-placement target. In contrast, basin-oor highs
are characterized by rocks with high clay content that were
deposited as sediment fell out of suspension, and are least
affected by detrital sediments from storm/current ows
(good source for detrital sediments).
Both thermal maturity and distribution organic carbon
control the formation of organic porosity: organic porosity
increases with increasing thermal maturity. Heterogeneity in
the organic matter causes different distributions of organic
carbon, which results in heterogeneous distributions of
organic pores at any stage of thermal maturity.
Calibrating well logs to core data allows the proper
estimation of TOC, total porosity, and uid density from
well logs. These parameters, along with mineralogy data,
can be used for identication of different petrotypes from
eld data.
The integrated workow described in this study can
also be applied to identify critical petrophysical parameters
followed by determination of the sweetspots within any
other resource shales.

PETROPHYSICS

379

Gupta et al.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank Cimarex Energy for providing the
funding and some cores used in this study. We acknowledge
the help and guidance provided by the people at the
University of Oklahomas Integrated Core Characterization
(IC3) Laboratory.
REFERENCES

PR

Fig. 21Well-log plot of the Petrotype 3 in Well 1. Deep resistivity

(AT90) is plotted in Track 1, petrotype is plotted in Track 2. LW, MW,
and UW refer to lower, middle and upper member of the Woodford
Shale, respectively. (a) Petrotype 1, with I>6.5%, is shown cyan in
Track 2. (b) Petrotype 1, with dynamic Youngs modulus >28 GPa and
Poisson's ratio <0.16, are is shown in maroon in Track 2. Note, the close
association of alternating cyan and maroon intervals in the upper part of
middle Woodford member.

NOMENCLATURE
FIB = focused-ion beam
FTIR = Fourier transform infra-red transmission
spectroscopy
Hg = mercury
IC3 = integrated core characterization center
MICP = mercury-injection capillary pressure
NMR = nuclear magnetic resonance
SEM = scanning electron microscope
Tcf = trillion cubic feet
TOC = total organic carbon
k = constant used in Washburn equation
Pcap = capillary pressure, psi
r = pore-throat radius, m
Ro = vitrinite reectance, %
S1 = amount free hydrocarbons, mg/g
S2 = amount of remaining hydrocarbons that could be
S3 generated, mg/g
Tmax = temperature at maximum release of hydrocarbons,
C
Vp = compressional-wave velocity, km/s
Vs = shear-wave velocity, km/s
= interfacial tension, dyne/cm
= contact angle between mercury and air
b = bulk density, density, g/cm3
g = grain density, density, g/cm3
I = porosity, %
380

Amaefule, J.O., Altunbay, M., Tiab, D., Kersey, D.G., and

Keelan, D.K., 1993, Enhanced Reservoir Description:
Using Core and Log Data to Identify Hydraulic (Flow)
Units and Predict Permeability in Uncored Intervals/
Wells, Paper SPE-26436, presented at the SPE Annual
Technical Conference and Exhibition, Houston, Texas,
USA, 3-6 October.
Ballard, B., 2007, Quantitative Mineralogy of Reservoir
Rocks Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy,
Paper SPE-113023, presented at the SPE Annual
Technical Conference and Exhibition, Anaheim,
California, USA, 11-14 November.
Birch, F., 1960, The Velocity of Compressional Waves
in Rocks to 10 Kilobars, Part 1: Journal of Geophysical
Research, 65(4), 1083-1102.
Bradley, P.S., and Mangasarian, O.L., 2000, k-Plane
Clustering, Journal of Global Optimization, 16(1), 2332.
Caldwell, C.D., 2011, Lithostratigraphy of the Woodford
Shale, Anadarko Basin, West-Central Oklahoma,
presented at the AAPG Mid-Continent Section meeting,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1-4 October, AAPG Search
and Discovery Article No. 50518.
Comer, J.B., 2007, Reservior Characteristics and Gas
Production Potential of Woodford Shale in the Southern
Midcontinent, Indiana University IUScholorWorks.
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/1826
Curtis, M. E., R. J. Ambrose, C. H. Sondergeld, and C.
S. Rai, 2011, Investigation of the Relationship Between
Organic Porosity and Thermal Maturity in the Marcellus
Shale, Paper SPE-144370, presented at the North
American Unconventional Gas Conference and
Exhibition, The Woodlands, Texas, USA, 14-16 June.
Espitalie, J., 1986, Use of Tmax as a Maturation Index
for Different Types of Organic Matter; Comparison
With Vitrinite Reectance, in Burrus, J., editor, Thermal
Modeling in Sedimentary Basins, Editions Technip,
Paris, p. 475-496.
Gunter, G.W., Pinch, J.J., Finneran, J.M., and Bryant, W.T.,
1997, Overview of an Integrated Process Model to
Develop Petrophysical Based Reservoir Descriptions,

PETROPHYSICS

August 2013

Petrophysical Characterization of the Woodford Shale

Paper SPE-38748, presented at the SPE Annual

Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio,
Texas, USA, 5-8 October.
Gupta, N., 2012, Multiscale Characterization of the Woodford
Shale in West-Central Oklahoma: From Scanning
Electron Microscope to 3D Seismic, University of
Oklahoma, Ph.D. dissertation, 182 p.
Hoeve, M.V., Meyer, S.C., Preusser, J., and Makowitz, A.
2011, Basin-Wide Delineation of Gas Shale Sweet Spots
Using Density and Neutron Logs; Implications
for Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment of Gas
Shale Resources, presented at the 2010 AAPG Hedberg
Conference, Austin, Texas, USA, 5-10 December.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article No. 90122.
Jarvie, D.M., 1991, Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Analysis,
in Merrill, R.K., editor, Treatise of Petroleum Geology:
Handbook of Petroleum Geology, Source and Migration
Processes and Evaluation Techniques, AAPG, 113-118.
Jarvie, D.M., Hill, R.J., Ruble, T.E., and Pollastro,
R.M., 2007, Unconventional Shale-Gas Systems: The
Mississippian Barnett Shale of North-Central Texas as
One Model for Thermogenic Shale-Gas Assessment:
AAPG Bulletin, v. 91(4), p. 475-499
Johnson, K.S., 1988, Geologic Evolution of the Anadarko
basin, in Johnson, K.S., editor, Anadarko Basin
Symposium: Oklahoma Geological Survey, Circular 90,
3-12.
Kale, S., 2009, Petrophysical Characterization of Barnett
Shale Play, University of Oklahoma, MS Thesis, 114 p.
Kale, S., Rai, C.S., and Sondergeld, C.H., 2010, Rock
Typing in Gas Shales, Paper SPE-134539, presented
at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition,
Florence, Italy, 20-22 September.
Karastathis, A., 2007, Petrophysical Measurements on Tight
Gas Shale, University of Oklahoma, Norman, MS
Thesis, 117 p.
Lambert, M.W., 1993, Internal Stratigraphy and Organic
Facies of the Devonian-Mississippian Chattanooga
(Woodford) Shale in Oklahoma and Kansas; Source
Rocks in a Sequence Stratigraphic Framework, AAPG
Studies in Geology, No. 37, 163-176.
Loucks, R.G., Reed, R.M., Ruppel, S.C., and Jarvie, D.M.,
2009, Morphology, Genesis, and Distribution of
Nanometer-Scale Pores in Siliceous Mudstones of
the Mississippian Barnett Shale: Journal of Sedimentary
Research, 79, 848-861.
Matteson, A., and Herron, M.M., 1993, Quantitative Mineral
Analysis by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy,
Paper SCA 9308, presented at the SCA Annual Technical
Conference, Houston, Texas, 9-11 August.

August 2013

Passey, Q., Creaney, S., Kulla, J., Moretti, F., and Stroud, J.,
1990, A Practical Model for Organic Richness from
Porosity and Resistivity Logs, AAPG Bulletin, 74(12),
1777-1794.
Passey, Q.R., Bohacs, K., Esch, W.L., Klimentidis, R.,
and Sinha, S., 2010, From Oil-Prone Source Rock to
Gas-Producing
Shale
Reservoir-Geologic
and
Petrophysical Characterization of Unconventional
Shale-Gas Reservoirs, Paper SPE-131350, presented at
the International Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition
in China, Beijing, China, 8-10 June.
Pittman, E.D., 1992, Relationship of Porosity and
Permeability to Various Parameters Derived From
Mercury Injection Capillary Pressure Curves For
Sandstone, AAPG Bulletin, 76(2), 191-198.
Raina, I., 2010, Petrophysical Characterization of Thirteen
Finger Limestone, University of Oklahoma, MS Thesis.
Rickman, R., Mullen, M.J., Petre, J.E., Grieser, W.V., and
Kundert, D., 2008, A Practical Use of Shale Petrophysics
for Stimulation Design Optimization: All Shale Plays
are Not Clones of the Barnett Shale, Paper SPE-115258,
presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and
Exhibition, Denver, Colorado, USA, 21-24 September.
Rushing, J.A., Newsham, K.E.. and Blasingame, T.A.,
2008, Rock Typing-Keys to Understanding Productivity
in Tight Gas Sands, Paper SPE-114164, presented at
the SPE Unconventional Reservoirs Conference,
Keystone, Colorado, USA, 10-12 February.
Schreiber, E., Anderson, O., and Soga, N., 1973, Elastic
Constants and Their Measurements, McGraw-Hill, New
York.
Sondergeld, C., and Rai, C., 1993, A New Concept in
Quantitative Core Characterization, The Leading Edge,
12(7), 774-779.
Sondergeld, C.H., Newsham, K.E., Comisky, J.T., Rice,
M.C., and Rai, C.S., 2010, Petrophysical Considerations
in Evaluating and Producing Shale Gas Resources,
Paper SPE-131768, presented at the SPE Unconventional
Gas Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, 23-25
February.
Sondhi, N., 2011, Petrophysical Characterization of Eagle
Ford Shale, University of Oklahoma, MS Thesis.
Sullivan, K.L., 2006, Organic Facies Variation of the
Woodford Shale in Western Oklahoma, University of
Oklahoma, MS Thesis.
U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2011, Review of
Emerging Resources; US Shale Gas and Shale Oil Plays,
82 p. ftp://ftp.eia.doe.gov/natgas/usshaleplays.pdf

PETROPHYSICS

381

Gupta et al.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Nabanita Gupta received a
PhD in Geology from University of
Oklahoma (2012), M.S. (2005) from
Indiana University, M.Sc. (2003)
from Indian Institute of Technology
Bombay, India and BSc. (2001)
from Jadavpur University, India.
She started her professional career
as a Petrophysicist with Shell since 2012. Her research
interest is unraveling the mystery of resource shales in an
integrated fashion. Along with the Woodford Shale for her
PhD research, she has evaluated a number of emerging shale
plays. She is a reviewer of the Interpretation by the Society
of Exploration Geophysicist. She has worked with few other
major and service companies including ExxonMobil (2009)
and with Chevron (2008) and Baker Atlas.

research on unconventional reservoir rocks, in particular

shales, and in the areas of microstructural characterization,
anisotropy, NMR, petrophysics, hydraulic fracturing
and seismic reservoir modeling. He served as the SEG
Distinguished Lecture for the fall 2010. He and Dr. Chandra
Rai manage two industrial consortia: Experimental Rock
Physics and The Unconventional Shale Consortium.

Dr. Chandra S. Rai is cur rently

Director and Eberly Family Chair
Professor at Mewbourne School
of Petro leum and Geological
Engineering, University of Oklahoma,
U.S.A. He has an MS degree from
Indian School of Mines and a PhD
from the University of Hawaii, both in
Geophysics. He worked with Amoco
Production Company for 18 years in various technical and
management capacities. He has published more than two
dozen technical articles and holds ten US patents. His areas
of interest include seismic rock properties, petrophysics,
anisotropy, and reservoir characterization.
Carl Sondergeld is currently
Professor and the Curtis Mewbourne
Chair at the Mewbourne School
of Petroleum and Geological
Engineering, University of Oklahoma.
He earned a Ph.D. in Geophysics
from Cornell University and a B.A.
and M.A. in Geology from Queens
College, CUNY. He spent 19 years at
the Tulsa Research Center of Amoco Production Company
where he conducted research in petro- and rock physics
He holds 14 US patents. He has been at the University of
Oklahoma for 14 years; teaching petrophysics, geological
well logging, petrophysics of unconventional resources, and
seismic reservoir modeling. He is a two-time winner of the
Brandon Grifn award and four time winner of SPE student
chapter award of professor of the year. He currently conducts

382

PETROPHYSICS

August 2013