GNS Science Consultancy Report 2006/0XX

More documents

Recommendations

Info

10. Determine how geothermal production will affect the hydrocarbon reservoirs. 11. Study the economic viability of converting extant hydrocarbon wells for geothermal direct heat use or for power production. 8.0 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS The 349 abandoned onshore oil and gas wells in New Zealand have total vertical depths of 17 to 5064m and estimated bottom hole temperatures ranging from ambient temperatures (about 12 to 18 o C) to 172 o C. Of these wells 65% are located in the North Island, the rest in South Island. Taranaki, the only oil and gas producing hydrocarbon basin in the country, has the largest number of abandoned oil and gas wells at 140 or about 40% of all onshore wells and also contains 16 of the 20 wells with bottomhole temperatures >120 o C. Thus the use of abandoned hydrocarbon wells for direct heat utilisation and power generation could add another 6.1 PJ to the geothermal energy potential of New Zealand. Of these 1.4 PJ is for use with ground source heat pumps from 123 wells with bottomhole temperatures of 120 o C and include, with decreasing priority, Tipoka-1, Te Kiri-1, Toko-1, New Plymouth-2 or Inglewood-1. The selected wells are either near dairy farms or an industrial complex like Fonterra or within a population centre such as Stratford, new Plymouth and Inglewood. Three of the sites are within a 1.8 km radius from another abandoned well, but with lower temperatures, that can be used for reinjection. Well Inglewood-1, however, is 2.1 km from the nearest abandoned well and a reinjection may need to be drilled nearer the well and there is no nearby well for Te Kiri-1. New wells in high heat flow regions of the country, outside the Taupo Volcanic Zone, Ngawha and Department of Conservation land, may provide another 0.67 PJ of energy assuming production of energy from waters extracted at 100 o C and a flow of about 4 L s -1 . However, these will only be drilled once the viability of geothermal power outside the Taupo Volcanic Zone and Ngawha have been proven by harnessing geothermal energy from abandoned hydrocarbon wells. The requisite temperature may be present in abandoned hydrocarbon wells for a wide range of geothermal energy uses but there are many geoscientific, technical and non technical problems to be considered before oil and gas wells can be used for geothermal power generation or cogeneration of geothermal and hydrocarbon energy. However New Zealand has the available expertise in the geothermal and oil and gas industries and access to the requisite technology, making this scheme of converting old hydrocarbon wells for geothermal use viable. GNS Science Report 2007/23 24
Converting at least a pair of abandoned hydrocarbon wells (one for production the other for reinjection) in Taranaki for use in a 200 kWe pilot plant may prove the viability of this scheme. 9.0 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to D. Darby and E. Mroczek for reviewing the report whose comments and suggestions have contributed to the improvement of the report. Discussions with D. Darby, E Mroczek, and J. Callan and speakers of the conference on Geothermal Energy Generation in Oil and Gas Settings Conference held in the Southern Methodist University, Texas in 13-14 March 2006 have helped in writing this report. Thank you to K. Hunt for her expert word processing. 10.0 REFERENCES Allis R G and Shi Y (1995) New insights to temperature and pressure beneath the central southern Alps, New Zealand. NZ J Geol Geophysics, 38, 585-592. Allis R G, Funnell R and Zhan X (1998) From basins to mountains and back again: NZ basin evolution since 10 Ma. Proceedings 9 th International Symposium on Water-Rock Interaction, Taupo New Zealand, 3-7. Barbacki A (2000) The use of abandoned oil and gas wells in Poland for recovering geothermal heat. Proceedings World Geothermal Congress 2000, Kyushu Japan, 3361-3365. Barr H, Grant M A and Mclachlan R (1984) Proving and development of geothermal fields, DSIR Report 116, Wellington New Zealand. Barry J M, Duff S W and MacFarlan D A B (1994) Coal resources of New Zealand. Coal report series CR3132, NZ Ministry of Commerce, 73 p. Bodvarrsson G and Reistad G M (1983) Forced geoheat recovery for moderate temperature uses. J Volcanol and Geoth Res, 15, 247-267. Campbell R G and Hattar M M (1990) Operation of a geopressured hybrid power system at Pleasant Bayou. Proceedings Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1990, IECEC-90 25 th Intersociety, 91-101. Cook R A, Sutherland, R, Zhu H and others (1999) Cretaceous-Cenozoic geology and petroleum systems of the Great South basin, New Zealand. Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Monograph 20, Lower Hutt New Zealand, 188 p. Dunstall M (2005) 2000-2005 New Zealand country update. Proceedings World Geothermal Congress 2005, Turkey. Field B D, Uruski C I and others (1997) Cretaceous-Cenozoic geology and petroleum systems of the East Coast region, New Zealand. Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Monograph 19, Lower Hutt New Zealand, 301 p. Funnell R and Allis R G (1997) Hydrocarbon maturation potential of offshore Canterbury and Great South basins. Proceedings New Zealand Petroleum Conference, 22-30. Funnell R, Chapman D, Allis R and Armstrong P (1996) Thermal state of the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand. JGR, V 101 (B11), 25197-25215. Griggs J (2005) A reevaluation of geopressured-geothermal aquifers as an energy source. Proceedings 30 th workshop on geothermal reservoir engineering, Stanford University, California. Hance C N (2005) Factors affecting costs of geothermal power development. Geothermal Energy Association for the US Department of Energy, 61 p. GNS Science Report 2007/23 25
Page 2 and 3: Abandoned oil and gas wells - a rec
Page 4 and 5: CONTENTS ABSTRACT..................
Page 6 and 7: ABSTRACT There are 349 abandoned on
Page 8 and 9: Figure 1. Temperature, depth and pe
Page 10 and 11: 2.0 ABANDONED OIL AND GAS WELLS IN
Page 12 and 13: Figure 5. Map showing the distribut
Page 14 and 15: Figure 6. Drilled vertical depths o
Page 16 and 17: Figure 8. Temperatures ranges of on
Page 18 and 19: Table 1. Number of wells within a r
Page 20 and 21: 3.3 REASONS FOR ABANDONING WELLS Mo
Page 22 and 23: Assuming a flow of 4 L s -1 , the 2
Page 24 and 25: 5.0 CURRENT GEOTHERMAL USE OF ABAND
Page 26 and 27: In New Zealand temperature may be p
Page 28 and 29: Figure 16. Abandoned hydrocarbon we
Page 32 and 33: Isaac M J, Herzer R H, Brook F J an
Page 34 and 35: APPENDIX 1 NOTES ON THE GEOTHERMAL
Page 36 and 37: Speaker Company/Agency Topic Main P
Page 38 and 39: Table 6. Basic well data for onshor
Page 40 and 41: Well Name NORTH ISLAND TARANAKI Dat
Page 42 and 43: Well Name SOUTH ISLAND WEST COAST D

GNS Science Consultancy Report 2006/0XX

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?