| Title | Geopressured Geothermal Resources in Mexico |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rosa MarIa PROL-LEDESMA, Luz Thamara FERNANDEZ DE LA VEGA MARQUEZ |
| Year | 2020 |
| Conference | World Geothermal Congress |
| Keywords | abandoned oil wells, geopressured systems, oil production, geothermal energy, heat flow |
| Abstract | Hydrothermal systems associated with oil deposits have attracted the attention of developers. The feasibility of their exploitation has been promoted with new innovative technologies and in the near future they will play an important role in geothermal energy production. In this work, the Analytic Hierarchy Process is applied using GIS to define the most suitable wells in an oil province to be used for geothermal exploitation. In the oil fields in Mexico hot wells occur in Cuenca de Burgos and the Campeche-Tabasco area, where temperature gradients above 70ºC/km have been reported in deep oil/gas wells owned by Petróleos Mexicanos. This region possesses high medium enthalpy geothermal potential with the advantage that there are numerous wells that could be used to exploit these resources without having to include in the project the drilling expenses. The explored petroleum provinces in Mexico occupy almost 15% of the whole territory but here we will focus in two areas: the northern one contains the Burgos and Sabinas basins that produce mostly gas and are hosted in a thick Cenozoic dominantly siliciclastic marine sequence, which is well known by the petroleum reservoir engineers; and the southeastern province that contains oil reservoirs with significant carbonate and siliciclastic marine record. These zones have wells where fluid temperature is reported to present values above 100°C and geothermal gradients as high as 70°C/km. The largest expense in geothermal projects is drilling and development of the geopressured resources would most likely depend on the wells abandoned by the oil industry. These resources have not been considered for exploitation, but they could increase the geothermal reserves of Mexico significantly. |