China organic-rich shale geologic features and special shale gas production issues

The depositional environment of organic-rich shale and the related tectonic evolution in China are rather different from those in North America. In China, organic-rich shale is not only deposited in marine environment, but also in non-marine environment: marine-continental transitional environment and lacustrine environment. Through analyzing large amount of outcrops and well cores, the geologic fea-tures of organic-rich shale, including mineral composition, organic matter richness and type, and li-thology stratigraphy, were analyzed, indicating very special characteristics. Meanwhile, the more complex and active tectonic movements in China lead to strong deformation and erosion of organic-rich shale, well-development of fractures and faults, and higher thermal maturity and serious heterogeneity. Co-existence of shale gas, tight sand gas, and coal bed methane (CBM) proposes a new topic:whether it is possible to co-produce these gases to reduce cost. Based on the geologic features, the primary pro-duction issues of shale gas in China were discussed with suggestions.