Recent Advances in Shale Characterization Based on Laboratory Geochemistry and Geomechanics Techniques

Dr. Chinmay Sethi holds graduate and postgraduate degrees from Central University of Karnataka (India). He recently defended his Ph.D. thesis for his work on the organo-petrographic characteristics, source rock potential, and palaeo-depositional settings of shales of contrasting thermal maturities. Dr. Sethi’s research interests include organic petrology, source rock geochemistry, geomechanics, and CO2 storage. He has published multiple research articles in high-impact journals. His work has been presented at national and international conferences, where he has also received recognition, including a Best Paper Award at ICGEID 2024 hosted by IIT-Patna. Dr. David A. Wood received a Ph.D. in geochemistry from Imperial College London, United Kingdom, in 1977. He held post-doctoral fellowships at Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris and University of Birmingham, focusing on ocean floor geochemistry and deep-water drilling. He has worked in energy industry operational, research, and consulting roles since 1980. In recent years, he has conducted focused research on natural gas, shales, carbonates, coals, kerogen kinetics, petrophysics, drilling, LNG, geodynamics, machine learning, carbon sequestration, hydrogen exploration and exploitation, renewable energy, and energy sustainability issues. He has published extensively (H-index >60) and served in editorial roles with several high-ranking scientific journals. Dr. Bodhisatwa Hazra holds a Ph.D. from the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, India. He subsequently worked as Postdoctoral Fellow at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, followed by a tenure as DST-Inspire Faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He is currently working as Senior Scientist at CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR), India. Dr. Hazra’s research expertise lies in organic geochemistry, organic petrology, petrophysics, CO2 storage, and geomechanics. In the year 2019, Dr. Hazra received the prestigious CSIR-Young Scientist Award. He also received the SERB International Research Experience (SIRE) award in 2023 to conduct research at the University of Kiel, Germany. Dr. Mehdi Ostadhassan received his B.Sc. in petroleum exploration engineering from the Petroleum University of Technology (Iran), an M.Sc. in petroleum geophysics from IFP School (France), and a second M.Sc. in petroleum exploration engineering from PUT. He earned his Ph.D. in petroleum engineering from the University of North Dakota (USA). He began as Research Scientist at the Energy and Environmental Research Center and later joined the Department of Petroleum Engineering at UND, where he became Associate Professor in 2019. He then joined Northeast Petroleum University (China) as Distinguished Professor and is affiliated with the Unconventional Oil and Gas Institute. In 2021, he was awarded the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Experienced Research Fellowship and is currently based at Kiel University, Germany. He secured $3M+ USD in public/private funding and collaborates globally with universities and private companies. He studies how subsurface forces influence fluids and organic/inorganic matter.

• Organic Matter (OM) and Dispersed Organic Matter (DOM) in shales.- Advanced techniques for geochemical characterization.- Combining multi-scale imaging and spectroscopy for shale characterization.- Multi-scale insights into shale petrophysical properties.- Geomechanical characterization of shales: Techniques and insights.- Research gaps and outstanding challenges.