Potential assessment of methane and heat production from geopressured–geothermal aquifers

Abstract

Geopressured–geothermal aquifers of the US Gulf Coast contain a significant amount of geothermal energy and dissolved methane. This study investigates the effect of brine reinjection on the production of heat and methane from these aquifers. First, the range of uncertainty of aquifer properties was inspected to build the reservoir model of typical aquifers. A sensitivity analysis was then performed to find favorable conditions for production with and without reinjection, and the economic criteria for both scenarios were defined. This study concludes that reinjection has several advantages, such as increasing the sustainability of production, reducing reservoir connectivity risk, and disposing of produced brine in the same formation.