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Utah FORGE Phase 4A Circulation Testing: Early Operational Insights from a Field-Scale EGS Reservoir
Kristie MCLIN, John MCLENNAN, Kristine PANKOW, Clay JONES, Kevin ENGLAND, Garth LARSEN, Leroy SWEARINGEN, Brendan BERGSMA, Robert PODGORNEY, Pengju XING, Eiichi SETOYAMA, Stuart SIMMONS, Dana JURICK, Joseph MOORE, Benjamin BARKER
[Energy And Geoscience Institute, University of Utah, USA]
The Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (Utah FORGE) is the U.S. Department of Energy’s dedicated field laboratory for advancing enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) technology in low-permeability, high-temperature crystalline rock. Since receiving the FORGE designation in 2018, the project has advanced site characterization, drilling, stimulation, reservoir monitoring, and open-data activities intended to reduce the technical and economic risk of commercial EGS deployment. In 2026, Utah FORGE completed construction and commissioning of the Phase 4A circulation facility and initiated circulation testing in mid-August between the existing highly deviated injection and production wells. The facility enables controlled, field-scale testing of a hydraulicly stimulated fracture network under conditions scalable to commercial EGS operations. A comprehensive monitoring program acquired surface and subsurface operational data throughout the circulation campaign, including injection and production conditions, pressure response, flow behavior and distribution along the injector, temperature, seismicity, geochemistry, and distributed fiber-optic measurements. This presentation will provide an update on facility construction, commissioning, and the evolving interpretation of results of early circulation operations. Analyses evaluate water loss and reservoir connectivity, parasitic load and surface-system performance, induced seismicity, fracture response during injection, thermal behavior and evidence of thermal decline, and geochemical, microbial, scale, and corrosion responses across the circulation system. This integrated data set will be used to assess the operability and sustainability of the stimulated reservoir, identify constraints affecting longer-duration circulation, and inform the design of future monitoring, stimulation, and circulation experiments at Utah FORGE. The results offer a landmark comprehensive operational data set from an actively circulated, instrumented EGS reservoir in crystalline rock and will help define the technical pathways toward reliable, scalable geothermal energy production.
Topic: FORGE