The recent technological advancements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have led to a boom in gas production from unconventional shale gas reservoirs. However, knowledge and technologies required to successfully develop unconventional reservoirs are far beyond what is available in the industry at present. Shale gas reservoirs are extremely heterogeneous with ultra-low permeability and nano-pores. The flow of gas in this reservoir is non-linear, multi-faceted including adsorption/desorption, flow at high and low rates, solid-fluid interactions, etc., which makes it a significant challenge to quantify such flow. A pore-scale flow model was developed using a combination of CFD and COMSOL multi-physics 4.2 based on Darcy and Navier-Stokes equations to describe transport of adsorbed gas and free gas in pore spaces respectively. Parameters such as surface pressure, adsorbed gas density and initial reservoir pressure were used to study shale gas transport. The presence of adsorbed gas within the shale gas reservoir will decrease porosity while increasing total production and gas storage capacity due to the high affinity of surfaces of organic matter to methane found within the shale gas reservoirs and hence high gas-in-place estimates. Moreover, because production from the adsorbed gas phase is dependent on pressure, four different values of initial reservoir pressures were used to analyze the effect of reservoir pressure on flow velocity. It was observed that the higher the initial reservoir pressure, the greater the velocity of the flow and consequently higher production rates.

This study focused on the determination of detailed grain morphology using SEM technology on some Athabasca oil sands samples obtained from the Upper McMurray Formation in the Manville Group which occurs in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. The research was carried out using scientific techniques to understand grain morphology-being a major effect in discerning reservoir quality-a factor which is essential for in-situ bitumen recovery. After studying various grain size and shape parameters, results showed that Sample B is poorly sorted medium sand of relatively low porosity but high permeability. Sample C on the other hand is moderately sorted fine sand of relatively high porosity but low permeability. It was also found out that although both oil sand samples contain heavy oil which is essentially recoverable in-situ; Sample B proved to be more promising due to its higher permeability values. At the end of the study, it was recommended that further research be carried out on the oil sands samples by use of core analysis techniques; computer-based simulation for heavy oil recovery; and a general study of structural effects on oil sands such as weathering and fracturing, all of which are important in better-quality in-situ bitumen recovery.