Combined Use of Geothermal Energy and Oil or Gas Production

Abstract

Investigation of the combined systems is essential for enhancing production and sustainable energy recovery from deep geological formations. Two synergy solutions for oil and gas development projects by the utilization of geothermal energy in the Netherlands are considered here to improve energy recovery from the subsurface: I) In the Moerkapelle viscous oil field we studied the synergy potential between the production of oil and geothermal energy by utilization of hot geothermal fluids for enhanced oil recovery of the heavy oil. II) In the low-pressure Oude Leede gas field the synergy potential under study was for marginally economic natural gas production from gas fields in the proximity of a geothermal doublet project. The study focus is on the development of strategies for injecting cooled geothermal water for water flooding as a viable alternative to compression of the low-pressure gas reservoir. We investigated these strategies for various conditions. We found that: a) for the first synergy case the extra amount of oil produced by utilizing the geothermal energy could make the geothermal business case independent of subsidies and may be a viable option to reduce the overall project cost, b) and for the second case under certain conditions produced water from geothermal reservoir can be partially utilized for water injection in the gas field to maintain the gas reservoir pressure above the abandonment pressure or slow down the pressure depletion. Injecting water could also increase the ultimate recovery factor for higher abandonment pressure in a gas field. Here we give an overview about our work.