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Can somebody enlighten me whether or not fracturing and extraction of gas from shale gas fields will reduce the formation temperature enough so that maturation decreases. I was thinking about this as in contrast to 'normal' oil and gas extraction the reservoir is far from the source rock. Now I don't know if maturation in fractured shale reservoirs is expected to keep up with production, or add to the reserves over time, but couldn't this become an issue?

I recognize that fracturing will also allow formation water from surrounding rock to enter the formation and potentially replenish the lost heat. The objective will probably be to reduce this so there is still enough push to the wellbores, or is this not an issue when producing gas?

Also, I might be totally off that maturation can be quick enough to replenish produced gas. However, most maturation and primary migration models are based on tight shales that don't allow a lot of hydrocarbon expansion and could this not be the reason that oil and gas expulsion is usually expressed in volume units over millions of years?

I realise these might be a lot of questions, and I might be overlooking certain aspects or just, quite simply, be totally off...

Thanks in advance!

Erick

Interesting question! I don't think it's an issue though, due to the time generally needed for maturation and expulsion (like you say). Not an expert though...