In a discussion with a State of California petroleum Engineer, he stated that he thought California's Monterey Shale might be too crumbly to drill into. I have an old well record from somewhere that shows about 1500 feet of crumbly shale rock.This was from a vertical well record from before any one had heard of Horizontal drilling and fracing. I'd like to know how professional oil drillers think this would affect drilling and production in the Monterey Shale
James ----
In my discussion with Dr. Richard Behl of CSU Long Beach he referred to the complexity of the Monterey Shale depending on a number of factors, notably where it is located. At some points it is actually visible at ground level around Moro Bay-- at other points it is thousands of feet in the earth. The areas also vary in terms of dramatic seismic activity thus producing many more fractures within the shale itself-- depending on where it is located. Venoco (I believe it was) attempted some wells with a couple horizontal completions in Kern County with fairly dismal results. The oil is also known to be a heavy crude generally, with pockets of light in other areas. He called this cracking the Monterey code which is to say that the shale is not a "one size fits all" approach. He attributes this to the fact that the Monterey is considered a fairly young source rock as opposed to the more prolific cretaceous shales like the Niobrara, Utica, and Marcellus. Another excellent source of info is Dr. Jan Gillespie at CSU Bakersfield. I spoke with her concerning the known porosity and permeabiity of diatomite in the area which is an excellent reservoir rock located in much shallower zones than the Monterrey. It lies somewhere in the 1500-2000 ft deep range and turns to churt as it goes deeper and is exposed to greater heat and pressure. All this having been stated, what county / township / range is the well log pulled from? Best regards ----