| Abstract |
The Province of Alberta owns abundant oil and gas wells that intersected deep Hot Sedimentary Aquifers (HSA) with significant potential for producing geothermal energy. Developing an HSA geothermal project can be initiated by analyzing and filtering the available subsurface data to explore the prospect areas and formations as well as to identify candidate wells to be repurposed to geothermal wells. It can be carried out in two steps, pre-feasibility (desktop) study and feasibility study. The filtering criteria for the pre-feasibility study, as the first step of the preliminary study, include bottom hole temperature, geology, water production, well condition, and a series of non-technical factors such as market demand and resource rights. The desktop study can be extended into the feasibility study stage by applying filters into different datasets such as seismic data, well logs, chemistry data, drilling data, and so on, and/or detailed studying the temperature, geology, production, and well data., etc. The goal of these steps is the creation of a primary conceptual model and a list of wells that are suitable to be repurposed to production or injection well, testing well, co-produced wells, etc. Data completion and verification is the next step of the feasibility study, which can be conducted by R&D programs, field investigations, well testing the re-usable wells, etc. Analyzing the existing subsurface data and testing the wells, therefore, can lead to the creation of a conceptual model without drilling a new well within the prospect area. The model will assist developers to ascertain the production potential and economic viability of the project before entering into the exploration and appraisal drilling phase. |