New ISO Standards Set Global Benchmarks for Natural Gas Sector

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): The International Organization for Standardization announced its first five standards designed for the natural gas sector. All five standards originated from China. Furthermore, these standards establish the first global benchmarks with respect to the efficiency, safety, and advancement of technology in the development of shale gas.

One of the new standards is the “Determination and Calculation of Shale Brittleness Index” series, developed to help the global gas industry to address the issues of the identification of high-quality shale reservoirs and the optimization of the costs associated with hydraulic fracturing.

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For the first time, these standards also enable the global gas industry to articulate the level of shale compressibility and fracability. Experts within the industry believe that these new standards will improve the identification of high-quality shale reservoirs by approximately 10%.

In addition, exploration and development of single-well shale gas will be improved above the industry norm of 65% to 85% and will be achieved at a cost reduction of more than 10%.

Finally, “Performance Testing and Requirements for Slickwater” provides the first product-specific shale gas standard developed by China. Slickwater, a hydraulic fracturing fluid, is essential in the production of gas from shale formations. The standard contains the level and testing of slickwater, above 90% accuracy, which will help mitigate international disputes in trading shale gas and bring consistency to the international markets of shale gas.