Sustainable Geothermal Reservoir Management Practice

Abstract

The non-renewability, at human time scale, of geothermal energy sources arises the critical problem of the longevity of reservoir exploitation and sustainable mining of the steam/heat in place. The present paper reviews the key issues involved in sustainable development and management of geothermal resources, such as reservoir performance, well and reservoir life. Those address relevant methodologies among which reservoir production engineering, water injection and risk assessment take an important share. Last but not least the impact of so called externalities is also discussed The foregoing are illustrated in a selected case study addressing the Paris Basin geothermal district heating scheme, and concluded by the simulation of future exploitation trends and reservoir pressure/temperature patterns over a 75 year life projection.