Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Science & Technology: Opinion Piece on Cooperation Between Oil & Gas and Geothermal Technologies

How The Oil Industry Will Survive The Decline of Oil (OilPro)

by Nick Warren, Engineering Manager at Quantum Process Systems

Drilling resources will be redeployed to geothermal applications focusing on hot rock targets, generating – ideally – pure superheated steam.

Most current geothermal plants are open-loop with the more prominent using superheated brines. These are to be found within geologically active regions with shallow high-temperature fractured / permeable strata. The holy-grail target configuration will be closed-loop, which possesses none of the awesome silica scaling challenges associated with the use of open-loop brines.

Extended–reach, horizontal wells can deliver a highly effective steam super-heating system with imaginative completion design. Energy on demand, for short-term bursts of peak time power, forms an attractive target market. Peak-shaving power generation is a growing and rather obvious target. Geothermal is virtually limitless – and available 24/7.

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