Shale Gas in India: Status and Challenges

Abstract

With decline of production in gas fields, India became sixth largest natural gas importer in the global market. Seeing the domestic demand, it is essential to unlock shale gas from different shale gas plays in India. The key elements of shale gas production include the extensive drilling campaign, the need for hydraulic fracturing and realization of global growing of production facilities and flowlines. Also, advanced technologies are required for development of shale gas fields to make fruitful discoveries. The major problems encountered during drilling a shale gas well in India are additional reaming, hole enlargement, wellbore instability, costly fishing and side tracking operations. Water management, fracture geometry and presence of faults are also some of the major issues for fracturing of shale formations. This paper focuses on the current status and potential of shale gas in India. It also describes the challenges and their proposed solutions for development of shale gas plays. Keywords: Shale gas, Hydraulic fracturing, Energy, Multilateral drilling