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HARVESTING GEOTHERMAL FROM ABANDONED, SUPERDEEP DRY HOLES

Máté Horváth

Abstract

Hungary, like other eastern European countries, has suffered from an energy deficit for the past several years. Energy consumption exceeds energy production, and the country remains dependent on mostly imported fossil fuels such as oil and gas. Renewable energy usage is mostly limited to hydro and solar power generation. Government, industry and academia have paid relatively little attention to geothermal energy as a source of heat and power generation. This study aims to identify and examine the feasibility of harnessing geothermal energy from abandoned oil and gas wells. It is well known that drilling comprises at least 60% of a well?s CAPEX, so projects that could use abandoned wells would realize a significant cost savings. In 2013-2014, five superdeep wells were drilled for hydrocarbon production in Mak?, in SE Hungary. During the drilling process, measurements showed that these wells were unexpectedly hot ? 300 В°C and higher ? which caused a lot of problems. They also presented great geothermal opportunities, which were not exploited at that time. Although these wells were abandoned because they had no oil and gas potential, valuable geological and lithological well-logging information was recorded, which remains very useful. In line with the recommendations outlined by A. Toth at the 2017 Stanford Geothermal Workshop, it would be a good idea to re-evaluate these abandoned wells and see how we can best exploit their geothermal potential.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2018/4.1/s17.050

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