Geological and geomechanical characterisation of the Westphalian in the Campine Basin (NE Belgium).

Production of shale gas has been an economical game changer in the United States since 2007. In Europe there is also interest to study the potentials and perform exploration drillings to gas shales. Main focus lies on marine black shales due to their economic success in the US. Other organic rich deposits are mostly overlooked, for instance shales in coal sequences. These differ in depositional environment, which is continental and sensitive to vast changes in depositional environment. The presence of continental organic material gives analytical difficulties for the quantitative determination of the mineralogy (by means of QXRD). All these characteristics are negative for the development of a shale gas play. Nonetheless, these deposits show a certain potential.

The objective of the proposed doctoral research is characterize shale deposits in coal sequences and determine their potential regarding the exploration and exploitation of shale gas. Petrographical study on drill cores and thin sections with light and electron microscopy will be conducted to examine the sedimentology, mineralogy and rock texture, in order to make the comparison to the black marine shales. Mechanical tests will be performed to determine the frackability of the rock. These results will be compared to the petrological study and the quantitative determination of the mineralogy by means of QXRD. It is the ambition to develop method which allows a faster and more accurate mineralogical quantification of shales in coal sequences. The exploitability depends on the amount of hydrocarbons that can generated and stored inside the pore system and on the surface areas of clay minerals and organic particles. These characteristics can be determined respectively by means of Rock-Eval, Mercury Injection Porosimetry (MIP), gas adsorption, SAXS, SANS and sorption tests. Finally a conceptual model, which is based on the CBM model of VITO, will be constructed with these results to determine the shale gas potential of the Campine Basin.

This doctoral research is a corporation between the University of Leuven (KUL), Geological Survey of Belgium (GSB) and Technical University of Aachen (RWTH), embedded in the EERA Shale Gas Joint Program. This study will be conducted at the research group Sediment Petrology of the KU Leuven, supervised by Prof. Rudy Swennen. Further Dr. Kris Piessens of the research group Georesources (GSB) and Pieter Bertier from the Energy & Mineral Research Group (RWTH) will be involved for their expertise and specific methods. There will be a collaboration with VITO for the set up of a conceptual model for shale gas in the Campine Basin.