| Title | Design and Evaluation of Well Placement and Hydraulic Stimulation for Economical Heat Recovery from Enhanced Geothermal Systems |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shaik, Abdul Ravoof; Koh, Joshua; Rahman, Sheik S.; Aghighi, Mohammad A.; Tran, Nam H. |
| Year | 2009 |
| Conference | Geothermal Resources Council Transactions |
| Keywords | |
| Abstract | Most geothermal systems require permeability enhancement through reservoir pressurization. Geothermal industry currently lacks an appropriate design and evaluation tool for hydraulic stimulation treatment to enhance reservoir permeability. This paper presents a systematic approach to design and evaluate well placement and hydraulic stimulation program. It takes into account of reservoir pressurization through hydraulically induced fractures and dynamic response of the natural fracture network to injection pressure. It makes use of a hydraulic stimulation model that integrates a fully coupled hydraulic fracture propagation model and a poroelastic reservoir model. For a given fracture network, the stimulation model evaluates different scenarios of well placement, hydraulic fracture geometry and injection schedule with an objective of economic heat recovery. Results of our study have shown that a geothermal reservoir can be efficiently pressurized through a pair of induced fracture which increases well injectivity and reduces pressure loss across the reservoir. The results of this study have also shown that the integrated hydraulic stimulation model is capable of evaluating stimulation parameters such as well placement, induced fracture geometry, initial reservoir properties and injection schedule. This has also allowed us reducing the risk of short circuiting due to excessive permeability enhancement. |