Beginning with the first of a planned multi-well geothermal development on the Texas Gulf Coast, the ultra-high-temperature tracer technology, which has been used extensively in stage-level flow profiling of unconventional oil and gas wells, will be used to map the flow path of injected fluid. This will ensure adequate heat transfer between injector and heated brine-producing wells. Drilling of the high-temperature, high-pressure (HTHP) test well will kick off the first-ever commercial-scale geothermal development in Texas.
Along with now-routine well construction techniques, such as high-deviation tangents, horizontal well trajectories, multi-stage completions and closed-loop systems, the use of the smart nanoparticle tracers represents yet another step change advancement in the transfer of oil and gas technologies to the advancing geothermal sector. As with oil and gas wells, surface recovery of the specially tagged and non-radioactive tracers will provide precise flow measurements of conductive pathways from injection to production wells.
Data analysis will clearly identify stages with insufficient water flow that will require remediation, thus eliminating the guesswork that typically characterizes geothermal flow behavior assessments. Unlike multi-well unconventional developments, however, to facilitate maximum heat transfer, the resulting analytics from the next-generation tracer deployments will be used to promote, rather than mitigate, direct inter-well communication.
The well test and reservoir management plans for the Criterion Geothermal Systems Water Oak 1 (CGS-WO1) project will incorporate the tracer technology and data analysis to best inform optimum vertical and horizontal well spacing, injection rates and future full-field development strategy. Wells in the two-phase geothermal development, located alongside a major chemical manufacturing facility, are being drilled on repurposed oil and gas properties, Fig. 1.1
Taking notice of the intrinsic potential of orphaned petroleum acreage, the two-year-old Geothermal Technologies Office of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in January awarded $8.4 million in grants to assess the geothermal opportunities within abandoned oil and gas wells, in support of the Biden administration's ambitious goal to develop a carbon-free electrical grid by 2035.
