Reservoir characterisation of aquifers for direct heat production: methodology and screening of the potential reservoirs for the Netherlands
2012
Geothermal low enthalpy heat in non-magmatic areas can be produced by pumping hot water from aquifers at large depth (>1 km). Key parameters
for aquifer performance are temperature, depth, thickness and permeability. Geothermal exploration in the Netherlands can benefit considerably
from the wealth of oil and gas data; in many cases hydrocarbon reservoirs form the lateral equivalent of geothermal aquifers. In the past decades
subsurface oil and gas data have been used to develop 3D models of the subsurface structure. These models have been used as a starting point for the
mapping of geothermal reservoir geometries and its properties. A workflow was developed to map aquifer properties on a regional scale. Transmissivity
maps and underlying uncertainty have been obtained for 20 geothermal aquifers. Of particular importance is to take into account corrections for
maximum burial depth and the assessment of uncertainties. The mapping of transmissivity and temperature shows favorable aquifer conditions in
the northern part of the Netherlands (Rotliegend aquifers), while in the western and southern parts of the Netherlands aquifers of the Triassic and
Upper Cretaceous / Jurassic have high prospectivity. Despite the high transmissivity of the Cenozoic aquifers, the limited depth and temperature
reduce the prospective geothermal area significantly.
The results show a considerable remaining uncertainty of transmissivity values, due to lack of data and heterogeneous spatial data distribution.
In part these uncertainties may be significantly reduced by adding well test results and facies parameters for the map interpolation in future work.
For underexplored areas this bears a significant risk, but it can also result in much higher flowrates than originally expected, representing an
upside in project performance.
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