Geothermal Reservoir Assessment Research Articles

Slim hole drilling and testing strategies

The financial and geologic advantages of drilling slim holes instead of large production wells in the early stages of geothermal reservoir assessment has been understood for many years. However, the practice has not been fully embraced by geothermal developers. We believe that the reason for this is that there is a poor understanding of testing and reservoir analysis that can be conducted in slim holes. In addition to reservoir engineering information, coring through the cap rock and into the reservoir provides important data for designing subsequent production well drilling and completion. Core drilling requires significantly less mud volume than conventional rotary drilling, and it is typically not necessary to cure lost circulation zones (LCZ). LCZs should be tested by either production or injection methods as they are encountered. The testing methodologies are similar to those conducted on large-diameter wells; although produced and/or injected fluid volumes are much less. Pressure, temperature and spinner (PTS) surveys in slim holes under static conditions can used to characterize temperature and pressure distribution in the geothermal reservoir. In many cases it is possible to discharge slim holes and obtain fluid samples to delineate the geochemical properties of the reservoir fluid. Also in the latter case, drawdown and buildup data obtained using a downhole pressure tool can be employed to determine formation transmissivity and well properties. Even if it proves difficult to discharge a slim hole, an injection test can be performed to obtain formation transmissivity. Given the discharge (or injection) data from a slimhole, discharge properties of a large-diameter well can be inferred using wellbore modeling. Finally, slim hole data (pressure, temperature, transmissivity, fluid properties) together with reservoir simulation can help predict the ability of the geothermal reservoir to sustain power production.

A probabilistic application of oil and gas data for exploration stage geothermal reservoir assessment in the Appalachian Basin

Geothermal energy is a renewable, widespread, baseload energy source that has the potential to supply a large portion of the world’s energy needs. High development risk, specifically high drilling costs combined with uncertainty in subsurface flow properties, have hampered growth of geothermal energy development. One option to reduce subsurface risk is to target locations where reservoir data are already available, including sedimentary basins where there has been extensive hydrocarbon production. Sedimentary basins are widespread and often have suitable geothermal gradients. This chapter presents a low-cost methodology that can be used at the pre-drilling exploration phase of a low-temperature geothermal project to predict the location of high-productivity and low-risk reservoirs, applied to a case study of the Appalachian Basin in the eastern United States. Because only averaged reservoir data were available for analysis, the technique uses a Monte Carlo simulation of the Reservoir Flow Capacity (RFC) and Reservoir Productivity Index (RPI) for over 1800 individual reservoirs, using liquid water or supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) as the reservoir fluid. RFC is used as an initial screening tool to identify high-priority geologic formations and reservoirs. Our results indicate that 99% of the reservoirs in the basin are of insufficient quality for geothermal heat production with water as the assumed fluid and without using stimulation technologies associated with Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). RPI is also used as an alternative metric to identify high-productivity reservoirs. When comparing the RPI results to natural gas production volumes from several selected reservoirs, the predicted RPI proves to be a good estimate of flow potential for porous reservoirs, but overestimates flow by a factor of three for fractured or vuggy reservoirs. A greater uncertainty ought to be utilized when applying the RPI equation to non-porous media, therefore we recommend utilizing the RPI metric when higher resolution data are available for analysis. This methodology can be utilized in other basins that have experienced hydrocarbon exploration and production, to highlight low-risk reservoirs or geologic formations for further geothermal development.

Use of slim holes with liquid feedzones for geothermal reservoir assessment

Production and injection data from slim holes and large-diameter wells at four geothermal fields (Oguni, Japan; Sumikawa, Japan; Takigami, Japan; Steamboat Hills, U.S.A.) were analyzed in order to establish relationships (1) between injectivity and productivity indices, (2) between productivity/injectivity index and borehole diameter, and (3) between discharge capacity of slim holes and large-diameter wells. The productivity and injectivity indices for boreholes with liquid feedzones are more or less equal. Except for the Oguni boreholes, the productivity and injectivity indices display no correlation with borehole diameter. Thus, the productivity index (or, more importantly, the injectivity index in the absence of discharge data) from a slim hole with a liquid feed can be used to provide a first estimate of the probable discharge capacity of a large-diameter geothermal production well. The large-diameter wells at the Oguni, Sumikawa and Steamboat Hills geothermal fields have a more or less uniform inside diameter, and the discharge capacity of these wells (with liquid feedzones) can be predicted using Pritchett's “scaled maximum discharge rate” in conjunction with discharge data from slim holes. Because of the non-uniform internal diameter for large-diameter Takigami wells, it is not possible to use a simple scaling rule to relate the discharge capacities of slim holes and large-diameter wells at Takigami; therefore, a numerical simulator was used to model the available discharge data from Takigami boreholes. The results of numerical modeling indicate that the flow rate of large-diameter Takigami production wells with liquid feedzones can also be predicted using discharge and injection data from slim holes.