Slim-hole drilling for geothermal exploration
- Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Drilling production-size holes for geothermal exploration puts a large expense at the beginning of the project, and thus requires a long period of debt service before those costs can be recaptured from power sales. If a reservoir can be adequately defined and proved by drilling smaller, cheaper slim-holes, production well drilling can be delayed until the power plant is under construction, saving years of interest payments. In the broadest terms, this project's objective is to demonstrate that a geothermal reservoir can be identified and evaluated with data collected in slim holes. A coordinated working group, including personnel from Sandia, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, University of Utah Research Institute, US Geological Survey, independent consultants, and geothermal operators, has been assembled to focus on the development of this project. This group is involved to a greater or lesser extent in all decisions affecting the direction of the research. Specific tasks being pursued include: (1) Correlation of fluid flow and injection tests between slim-holes and production size wells. (2) Transfer of slim-hole exploration drilling and reservoir assessment to industry so that slim-hole drilling becomes an accepted method for geothermal exploration. (3) Development and validation of a coupled wellbore-reservoir flow simulator which can be used for reservoir evaluation from slim-hole flow data. (4) Collection of applicable data from commercial wells in existing geothermal fields. (5) Drilling of at least one new slim-hole and use it to evaluate a geothermal reservoir.
- OSTI ID:
- 7369666
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-930484--; ON: DE94001714
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
150303* -- Geothermal Exploration & Exploration Technology-- Exploratory Drilling & Well Logging
DRILLING
ENGINEERING
EXPLORATION
FLUID FLOW
FLUID INJECTION
GEOTHERMAL EXPLORATION
GEOTHERMAL FIELDS
GEOTHERMAL INDUSTRY
Geothermal Legacy
INDUSTRY
RESERVOIR ENGINEERING
WELL DRILLING