The Use of the Naphthalene Sulfonates as Tracers in High Temperature Geothermal Systems

Abstract

Thermally stable, water-sduble tracers am required in older to test the flow patterns between injection and pmduction wells in hghtempemturn two-phase geothermal systems such as Bulalo, where reservoir fluids can exceed 300%. A detailed ana/ytical method for the simultaneous analysis of six thermally stable naphthalene suflonate tracers by High Performance muid Chromatography is presented. In previous studies summatized in this paper, four of the tracers exhibited IK) thermal decay after exposure for one week at 33@C, indicating that they can be used in lquiddominated geothermal systems having temperatures exceeding 3300C. In a tracer test at the Bulalo geothermal field in Luzon, Philippines, two laboratories independently confirmed tracer returns from an injector on the periphery of the field to producers near its center.