1. Institute of Energy and Environment & Institute of Geosciences – USP
The Paleozoic shales of Paraná and Parnaíba basins, Brazil, and their potential for shale gas
Claudio Riccomini
Institute of Energy and Environment & Institute of Geosciences – USP

5. Top 10 countries with technically recoverable shale oil resources
Top 10 countries with technically recoverable shale gas resources
Rank
Country
Shale oil
(bbl)
Shale gas
( tcf) 1
Russia 75
China
1,115 2
US*
58 (48)*
Argentina
802 3 32
Algeria
707 4 27
665 (1,161) 5
Libya 26
Canada
573 6
Venezuela 13
Mexico
545 7
Australia
437 8
Pakistan 9
South Africa
390
285 10
Indonesia
Brazil
245
World Total
345 (335)
7 299 (7795)
*EIA estimates used for ranking order.
API estimates in parenthesis

6. Brazil’s dry natural gas production and consumption
(TCF)

9. Why?
large, intracratonic basins
stratigraphy
rocks (shale)
structure
infrastructure

11. PPaara
Parnaíba Basin
Silurian to Jurassic

12. PPaara
Parnaíba Basin
Silurian to Jurassic
~600,000 sq km

13. PPaara
Parnaíba Basin
Silurian to Jurassic
~600,000 sq km
~3,500 m thickness of sedimentary and volcanic rocks

14. Geologic section – Parnaíba Basin (after Góes et al. 1993)

15. Stratigraphic chart of the Parnaíba Basin (after Vaz et al. 2007)

17. PPaara
Paraná Basin
Late Ordovician to Early Cretaceous

18. PPaara
Paraná Basin
Late Ordovician to Early Cretaceous
~1,000,000 sq km in Brazil

19. PPaara
Paraná Basin
Late Ordovician to Early Cretaceous
~1,000,000 sq km in Brazil
>7,000 m thickness of sedimentary and volcanic rocks

21. Stratigraphic chart of the Paraná Basin (after Milani et al. 2007)

22. i

24. ANP (2003)

25. Previous evaluations for shale gas:

27. Stratigraphic chart of the Parnaíba Basin (after Vaz et al. 2007)

28. Shale, Pimenteiras Formation, Parnaíba Basin
Cardona (2015)

29. Pimenteiras Formation – organic-rich shale
Isoliths (m)
TOC (wt%)

30. ANP (2012)

31. Pimenteiras Fm.
64 Tcf
Barnett Shale as analog (ANP 2011)

34. Stratigraphic chart of the Paraná Basin (after Milani et al. 2007)

36. ~300 m thick (average)
TOC up to 4.6%, typically 1.5% - 2.5%
81 Tcf of shale gas

37. Other targets:

39. Pimenteiras
Stratigraphic chart of the Parnaíba Basin (after Vaz et al. 2007)

40. Longá
Pimenteiras
Stratigraphic chart of the Parnaíba Basin (after Vaz et al. 2007)

41. Shale, Longá Formation, Parnaíba Basin
Cardona (2015)

42. Longá Formation
Cardona (2015)

43. Longá Shale:
area: ~100,000 sq km
average thickness of shale: 20 m
average TOC: 0.5 % (5 scf/ton)
estimation of gas content: 22 TCF

45. Stratigraphic chart of the Paraná Basin (after Milani et al. 2007)

46. Irati
Ponta Grossa
Stratigraphic chart of the Paraná Basin (after Milani et al. 2007)

47. Serra Alta
Irati

48. Events chart
(Araújo et al. 2000)

49. Events chart
(Araújo et al. 2000)

50. Mateus et al. (2014)

51. Events chart
(Araújo et al. 2000)

52. Organic carbon distribution in the Irati Shale (Assistência Formation)
(Araújo et al. 2000)
Residual
Reconstituted

53. Tohver et al. (2013)

54. Irati Shale:
area: ~200,000 sq km with TOC > 2%
average thickness of shale: 30 m
average TOC: 2.2 % (20 scf/ton)
estimation of gas content: 264 TCF

55. Serra Alta
Irati

56. Serra Alta
Irati
Ponta Grossa
Stratigraphic chart of the Paraná Basin (after Milani et al. 2007)

57. Warren et al. (2015)

58. Warren et al. (2015)

59. Serra Alta Shale:
area: >20,000 sq km
average thickness of shale: 20 m
TOC: % (Teixeira 2014)

60. Impact on groundwater:
The Guarany Aquifer

61. Guarany Aquifer
Irati
Ponta Grossa
Stratigraphic chart of the Paraná Basin (after Milani et al. 2007)

62. Isopach map of the stratigraphic section contained between the base of the Serra Alta Formation and the top of the Permian sucession (contours in meters), after Zalán et al. (1990).

63. Isopach map of the stratigraphic section contained between the base of the Serra Alta Formation and the top of the Permian sucession (contours in meters), after Zalán et al. (1990).
TOC
(Araújo et al. 2000)

64. Impact on Guarany Aquifer:
Distance of Irati Shale to the base of Guarany Aquifer varies
from ~600 to 1200 m in the region of high TOC (>3%).

65. Brazilian sedimentary basins
The knowledge that must be improved:

66. Stratigraphy
Sequence stratigraphy approach (seismic survey,
drilling, field survey

67. Stratigraphic chart – Paraná Basin (Holz et al. 2010)

68. Structure
Seismic survey, field survey

69. Seismic section, eastern part of the Paraná Basin
Campos et al. (2008)