Projects Selected for Mowry Project Phase II by UW School of Energy Resources

Thirteen proposals from University of Wyoming faculty and researchers have been selected by UW’s School of Energy Resources (SER) for funding under Phase II of the Mowry project.

Spearheaded by SER, in collaboration with UW’s Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute and Wyoming State Geological Survey, the project aims to study the Mowry Shale in the Powder River Basin and assess the potential of unlocking and producing the hydrocarbons locked within. Mowry Shale is a tight geological formation that houses oil and gas reserves.

The Wyoming Energy Authority (WEA) and Wyoming Legislature provide funding for the project.

“We have known the Mowry to exist as a large, untapped unconventional oil and gas resource, but little has been done to make accessing those reserves feasible or economic,” says Scott Quillinan, SER’s senior director of research. “The multidisciplinary approach of the Mowry project will address some of the challenges posed by the formation, reducing uncertainty in the formation and to help inform development decisions.”

With U.S. Department of Energy-funded oil and gas research stalled, Quillinan adds that the Mowry project is a continued investment in innovation in the oil and gas industry for Wyoming.

“Wyoming has tremendous natural resources, and our goal is to facilitate success among industries that economically support the state,” he says. “We are grateful for the investment into research by the Wyoming Legislature and WEA.”

In 2022, SER released an initial request for proposals exploring the formation. Seven research projects were chosen to receive seed funding under Phase I of the project. In Phase II, several of the original projects have combined to build on work completed in Phase I and investigate the expanded scope in Phase II. New projects have been recruited to the effort that explores previously uninvestigated areas related to the Mowry.

New projects selected under Phase II will last up to two years, with a maximum budget of $100,000.

The projects are:

-- Hertanto Adidharma, a professor of chemical and biomedical engineering, and Morteza Dejam, an associate professor of energy and petroleum engineering, “Fundamental Investigation of Fluid Phase Transition Confided in Mowry Shale.”

-- Po Chen, SER associate professor of geology and geophysics, “Exploring Well-log based Geochemical Mapping of Mowry Shale Using Attention U-Net.”

-- Tim Considine, SER professor of economics, “Economics of the Mowry Shale.”

-- Tawfik Elshehabi, an assistant professor of energy and petroleum engineering, “Drilling Fluids Stability and Compatibility with Mowry Shale-Bentonite.”

-- Jamie McFarlin, an assistant professor of geology and geophysics, and Lily Jackson, an SER research scientist, “Assessing controls on dynamic redox conditions in the Cretaceous Mowry Seaway using high-resolution chronology and organic geochemistry.”

-- Kalyan Venugopal, an associate research scientist of energy and petroleum engineering, and Minou Rabiei, the Lynch Endowed Associate Professor of Energy and Petroleum Engineering, “Spatiotemporal GNN Based Model to Forecast Production in Mowry Shale.”

Projects selected to expand existing research will be funded up to three years and will have a maximum budget of $225,000.

The projects are:

-- The SER team of research scientists Matthew Johnson, Grant Copeland and Jackson, along with SER Program Manager Zunsheng Jiao, “Mowry Shale Geology, Sweet Spot Delineation, Production Evaluation in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming.”

-- Kam Ng, a professor of civil and architectural engineering, Copeland and Saman Aryana, a professor of chemical engineering and the Occidental Chair in Energy and Environmental Technologies, “Oil and Gas Production Optimization and Performance Improvement through Understanding Geomechanics of Mowry Shale.”

-- Vladimir Alvarado, a professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, and John Kaszuba, a professor of geology and geophysics and the John and Jane Wold Centennial Chair in Energy, along with Copeland and Aryana, “Data-driven design of optimal stimulation fluid chemistry.”

-- Aryana will lead another proposal with Ng and Alvarado, “A Mechanistic understanding of the influence of ex-situ fluids and in-situ stresses on flow and transport in Mowry Shale facies.”

-- Soheil Saraji, an associate professor of petroleum engineering, “Sweet Spot Identification in the Mowry Formation: A Synergistic Laboratory.”

-- Vamegh Rasouli, a professor and department head and the LeNorman Endowed Leadership Chair in Petroleum Engineering, along with Dejam and Rabiei, “Characterization of Coupled Flow and Geomechanical Response Induced by Depressurization during Production from Mowry Shale of Powder River Basin.”

-- Xiang Zhang, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, “Modeling and design of hydraulic fractures for reduced uncertainty and increased productivity in Mowry Petroleum System.”

In addition to the project leads, the 13 proposals will support 20 Ph.D. and master’s students across eight different departments on campus.

“We are pleased by the quality of proposals we received. We are even more excited to see the degree of collaboration happening within the proposals and departments,” Quillinan says. “Projects like these are intended to bring expertise across campus together to work toward a common goal. Seeing some of UW’s best researchers and faculty members unite to tackle an important issue in Wyoming is what is going to ultimately yield results.”