Formation and occurrence of organic matter-hosted porosity in shales

Finally, we propose a conceptual model for the formation, preservation and destruction of OM-hosted porosity for shales. Accordingly, we suggest that, all other factors being equal, a quartz-rich brittle shale will preserve more SEM-visible solid bitumen-hosted (meso and micro) porosity compared to that of a clay-rich ductile shale. Therefore, gas storage capacity of a quartz-rich shale will be relatively high compared to that of a clay-rich shale.