Geothermal Assessment of Target Formations Using Recorded Temperature Measurements for the Alberta No. 1 Geothermal Project

Katherine Huang,Darrell Cotterill,Catherine Hickson,Yannick Champollion

doi:10.3390/app11020608

Abstract

The Alberta No. 1 project is a planned power and heat (direct use) geothermal project located within the County of Grande Prairie and Municipal District of Greenview. For the project to successfully produce power and heat on a commercial scale, temperatures of 120 °C are desirable. The produced fluids must also be from highly permeable formations from depths of less than 4500 m. Bottomhole temperature measurements and wireline logs from Alberta’s extensive oil and gas database were used to determine the depths to target formations and temperatures within these formations in the project area. The target formations include the dolomitized carbonate units of Devonian age from the Beaverhill Lake Group to the top of the Precambrian Basement. Permeable Devonian-aged sandstone units such as the Granite Wash Formation are also targets. Results suggest that elevation to the top of the Beaverhill Lake Group range from 3104 m to 4094 m and temperatures at the top of the formation range from 87 °C to 123 °C in the study area. Elevation to the top of the Precambrian Basement ranges from 3205 m to 4223 m and temperatures at the formation top range from 74 °C to 124 °C. Within the area where Alberta No. 1 plans to drill, temperatures close to and exceeding 120 °C are expected within the target formations.

Highlights

Nine chosen areas were assessed for these three constraining factors; results concluded that the area that lies within the Municipal District of Greenview (MDGV) and County of Grande
Our results suggest that elevation to the top of the Beaverhill Lake Group ranges from 3104 m to 4094 m and temperature at the top of the formation ranges from 87 ◦ C to 123 ◦ C
For a geothermal project to be economic in the area at this time, the estimated maximum depth of target formations must be less than 4500 m, and thermal fluids of at least

Summary

Introduction

During and after this heat up period, continuous logs are run from top to the bottom To account for such discrepancies, several correction methods have been created and used to predict equilibrated temperatures at depth from BHTs. Interpretation of geothermal resources from BHT data has been the subject of a considerable amount of research, for example, Harrison et al (1983), Horner (1951), and Stutz et al (2012) [4,5,6]. For the purposes of the Alberta No 1 geothermal project, a conservative, lower estimate of target formation temperatures is required for understanding the reservoir, the well design, the expected flow rate, and the power plant design. Temperatures range from 87 ◦ C to 123 ◦ C and 89 ◦ C to 127 ◦ C at the top of the Beaverhill Lake Group and Precambrian Basement, respectively

BHT Data Filtering and Calculating Thermal Gradient

Selecting Formation Tops

Temperature and Elevation Maps

Results

Conclusions