Mathematical Scaling and Statistical Modeling of Geopressured Geothermal Reservoirs

• Main Author: Ansari, Esmail
• Other Authors: Hughes, Richard G
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: LSU 2016
• Subjects: Petroleum Engineering
• Online Access: http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-03232016-135113/

The interest for developing geopressured-geothermal reservoirs along the US Gulf Coast is increasing for securing energy needs and reducing global warming. Identifying the most attractive candidate reservoirs for geothermal energy production requires quick and simple models. Analytical models are not always available and simulating each case individually is expensive. The use of scaling and statistical modeling is one approach to translate the output of a simulator into quick models with general applicability at all scales. The developed models can quickly estimate temperature and thermal energy recovery from the geopressured-geothermal reservoirs. These models can screen large databases of reservoirs to select the most attractive ones for geothermal energy production. This study presents two different designs for extracting energy from geopressured-geothermal reservoirs: Regular line drive and Zero Mass Withdrawal (ZMW). First, the governing partial differential equations describing each design are derived from the fundamental equations. Inspectional analysis on the partial differential equations of each design provides the most succinct and meaningful form of the dimensionless numbers for scaling the designs. The dimensionless numbers are tested and verified by selecting models with identical dimensionless numbers but different dimensional parameters. For creating the response models, statistics is used to find the important dimensionless numbers for predicting the response systematically. A procedure is used to compare all possible models and select the best one. These simplified final models are then presented and the performance of the simplified models is assessed using testing runs. Applications of these models are presented. To test the response models, two field cases from southern Louisiana are evaluated: the Gueydan Dome reservoir and the Sweet Lake reservoir. The Gueydan Dome reservoir (Vermilion parish, LA) is investigated using an optimization algorithm and it is concluded that the temperature map should be used for pre-development heat extraction assessments. The Sweet Lake reservoir (Cameron parish, LA) is studied using this conclusion.