Abstract:

Shale gas resource assessment has been carried out mostly with the static, dynamic and comprehensive approaches based on the principles it employs and the paths it explores.Of which, the static approach is composed of the genesis, statistics and analogy methods, with each being further divided into different and specific assessment procedures.The bulk procedure under the statistics method and the analogy method are adopted more often by the Chinese assessment teams during their estimation of shale gas resources in place in the country, while the statistics method and the dynamic approach are more frequently used by assessors in other countries during their calculation of recoverable shale gas resources.This paper provides a thorough review of the applicability and the advantages and disadvantages of as well as advances in all these assessment methods.It concludes that with the development of shale gas exploration and development in China, the static and dynamic approaches have been widely used and greatly improved but the comprehensive approach has been relatively overlooked.It also suggests that the grading and spatial distribution prediction of shale gas, establishment of calibration units, utilization of big data as well as set-up of a comprehensive assessment system based on all these methods are the main development directions for shale gas resource assessment, and that the next step for those doing the shale gas assessment work in China is to facilitate the bringing in of a more applicable and completed system for economic and ecological evaluations of shale gas exploration and development.

Key words: calibration unit, heterogeneity, mud shale, shale gas, resource assessment method, shale gas exploration