The susceptibility of the shale gas resources abundances based on the grey association analysis

The shale gas exploration is developing into a new field of the exploration and development of natural gas in China. Referenced to the representative shale basins in North America and the Lower Palaeozoic shale strata in the Sichuan Basin in China, the present paper focuses on the shale gas accumulation conditions and controlling factors influencing the shale gas resources abundances based on the grey association analysis. The technological processes of this method may be generalized as follows. Firstly, the reference data and correlation data are established from the abundant chaotic and random statistic data; then the dimensionless processing is made for the original data in order that these data may be comparable. Finally, these data are processed with the aid of the grey association analysis in order to evaluate these data and their contribution to the target elements. The main controlling factors include the burial depth, effective thickness, organic carbon abundance (TOC), thermal evolutionary degree (Ro) and total porosity. The result of research in this study may provide one useful approach to the future research of shale gas resources abundances.