The development of tight gas reservoirs over the previous half-century has profoundly affected and expanded the petroleum industry. Moreover, our improved understanding of tight gas reservoirs—from finding, characterizing, testing, modeling, and developing them to producing their resources economically—can be felt not only throughout our industry but also throughout our economy and, indeed, our daily routines.

Abundant, reliable, and inexpensive natural gas has truly transformed many aspects of our modern lifestyles. Within the last decade, for example, the world has made great strides in switching from coal-fired to gas-fired electricity generation, with a resulting reduction of US carbon-dioxide emissions of approximately 14% since 2005 (2017 BP Statistical Review of World Energy). Our expanded knowledge of natural-gas development and production has further advanced the goal of achieving energy independence, transforming the US from a gas importer into the third-largest liquid natural gas exporter in the world. It is hard to overstate the efficacy of our understanding and exploitation of tight gas reservoirs.

The four parts contained in this book methodically and comprehensively unfold the technical elements of developing tight gas reservoirs. They have been written with an industry-wide audience in mind; to help the student understand fundamental concepts; to provide comprehensive reference material for the experienced engineer; for the practitioner in the field looking for case studies and analogues; and for those readers curious about mathematical detail and theory, surely laying the foundation for many future academic investigations and doctoral theses.

This book is comprehensive enough to apply equally to those readers interested in tight oil reservoirs—common fundamentals, many similar concepts, just larger molecules.

The book’s organization supports its methodological approach.

Part 1 introduces tight gas resources, including definitions and beginning concepts. Thorough analyses of tight gas resource types (shale, conventional tight gas, and coalbed methane) and their geographical distribution and reserves are provided. This part describes shale gas plays in North America in detail.

Part 2 begins where the study of all reservoirs begins, with detailed characterization. Chapters within this part discuss geological considerations over various scales, in addition to detailed concepts in well testing and modeling to determine necessary formation properties.

Part 3 details all aspects of designing, planning, modeling, and executing hydraulic fracturing treatments and provides details on fracture initiation, geometry, and propagation.

Case Histories of Tight Gas Reservoir Development (digital only) contains 23 chapters combining field and laboratory experiments in addition to revised and updated SPE manuscripts covering subjects from proppant transport to economic gas-reservoir development.

In summary, this book is the culmination of a lifetime of individual and collaborative work on all aspects of tight gas reservoirs. The material comes from a multitude of sources, including many Gas Research Institute field trials, worldwide consulting reports written over several decades, Schlumberger research and development activities, literally hundreds of graduate-student theses and dissertations and, of course, numerous SPE peer-reviewed articles and conference papers.

I am not capable of personally endorsing the entire content, but you can trust that many of our dedicated industry colleagues have reviewed the material and, in many cases, tested and verified it in tight gas reservoirs around the world. If you are looking for a reason to buy this book, perhaps the best is that it represents our industry’s cumulative knowledge of tight gas reservoirs combined with decades of personal experiences in the implementation of the content.

Few people in our field have successfully combined deep intellect and old-fashioned know-how with leadership and vision. Perhaps even fewer have combined success and recognition with humility. Add a touch of stubbornness and a sense of humor, and you have our lead author. I cannot think of anyone with more credibility and respect than Dr. Stephen Holditch to assemble this compendium. When the leadership at SPE asked me to write the foreword for this book, I felt both honored and pleased to do so. I knew Steve for nearly 40 years, in many roles, from professor, friend, neighbor, and Schlumberger colleague to fellow golfer, hunter, and storyteller. Very simply, he was a great man and, like many, I miss him greatly. He has done more for our industry and our society and has impacted more lives, young and old, than anyone I can think of.

Now I am going to break a publishing rule or two and include in this foreword both an acknowledgment and a dedication, as the author sadly cannot. The final few drafts of this collective work, and the published version you now hold, could not have been completed, posthumously as it was, without the herculean efforts of the SPE publishing staff—Jane Eden, editorial services manager, and Rebekah Stacha, assistant director of technical publications, in particular—and also Dr. Ding Zhu, professor at Texas A&M University, who went to great effort to ensure the content was accurate and organized in the very readable manner Steve would have wanted and that you now see. Also, special thanks to David Grant, cover designer; Melinda Mahaffey Icden, editor; Lauren Miller, editor; Shashana Pearson-Hormillosa, editor; Dennis Scharnberg, technical editorial specialist; and Ingrid Scroggins, editor.

Steve Holditch was often a man of few words and rarely sentimental. If I knew him as well as I would like to think, though, I know he would surely want to dedicate this book—his magnum opus—to the loves of his life: his wife, Ann, and their daughters, Katie and Abbie. While reading, please keep in mind one of Steve’s favorite maxims: “I retain the right to get smarter.”

Jeff Spath

Professor and Holder of the Stephen A. Holditch ‘69 Department Head Chair Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering Texas A&M University

March 27, 2020