Enhancing Hydrogeothermal Reservoir Detection by Seismic Imaging and Attributes

Abstract

In Germany, low enthalpy reservoirs are used for hydro-geothermal energy production. They are located at depths of 3 - 5 km and have average temperatures of 100 – 150 °C. At many sites natural permeability of the rocks is not sufficient for economic operation. Therefore, the value of reservoirs is often bound to small scale geologic features as e.g. fracture systems, karstified limestone or locally varying facies. The most appropriate geophysical method revealing these features is reflection seismic.
The Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics (LIAG) investigates the relevance of 3D seismic methods for the exploration risk mitigation of hydrogeothermal reservoirs. Modern reflection seismic techniques are applied to characterize these reservoirs. Attribute analysis highlights faults and collapse structures that are hardly seen otherwise, common reflection surface stacks allow a more reliable determination of faults, and supplementary high resolution-profiling helps to reconstruct the kinematics of fault systems and their periods of activity.