Gas in place and its controlling factors of deep shale of the Wufeng–Longmaxi Formations in the Dingshan area, Sichuan Basin

Recently, deeply-buried shale (depth > 3500 m) has become an attractive target for shale gas exploration and development in China. Gas-in-place (GIP) is critical to shale gas evaluation, but the GIP content of deep shale and its controlling factors have rarely been investigated. To clarify this issue, an integrated investigation of deep gas shale (3740–3820 m depth) of the Lower Paleozoic Wufeng–Longmaxi Formations (WF–LMX) in the Dingshan area, Sichuan Basin had been carried out. Our results show that the GIP content of the studied WF–LMX shale in the Dingshan area ranges from 0.85 to 12.7 m 3/t, with an average of 3.5 m 3/t. Various types of pores, including organic matter (OM) pore and inorganic pore, are widely developed in the deep shale, with total porosity of 2.2 to 7.3% (average = 4.5%). The OM pore and clay-hosted pore are the dominant pore types of siliceous shale and clay-rich shale, respectively. Authigenic quartz plays a critical role in the protection of organic pores in organic-rich shales from compaction. The TOC content controls the porosity of shale samples, which is the major factor controlling the GIP content of the deep shale. Clay minerals generally play a negative role in the GIP content. In the Sichuan Basin, the deep and ultra-deep WF–LMX shales display the relatively high porosity and GIP contents probably due to the widespread of organic pores and better preservation, revealing great potentials of deep and ultra-deep shale gas. From the perspective of rock mechanical properties, deep shale is the favorable exploration target in the Sichuan Basin at present. However, ultra-deep shale is also a potential exploration target although there remain great challenges.