Handheld XRF - An Application to Shale Gas Plays

This study demonstrates the application of handheld XRF as a chemostratigraphic analyser to provide viable data for up to 30 elements, providing the instrument is well calibrated and its performance is monitored. The closely spaced, high resolution HHXRF analysis at a centimetre scale, highlights the potential of the instrument to model fine scale mineralogical variations associated with clay content and zones of carbonate and siliceous cementation. In addition, the accurate elemental data from HHXRF have also been used to calaculate mineralogy, which relates to rock mechanics, and therefore can provide an estimate of brittleness, which inturn can be used to predict the” fraccability” of shales. Critically, a fully calibrated HHXRF with stability monitoring protocols can provide high resolution, non-destructive chemostratigraphic analysis technique of both core and cuttings, which in the case of cored material can be analysed at a centimetre spacing, in the laboratory, at wellsite and in the field.