Analysis of Geochemical and Production Well Monitoring Data — A Tool to Study the Response of Geothermal Reservoirs to Exploitation

Abstract

Geothermal resources used to generate power are complex systems. The hydrother‐ mal, high-temperature geothermal reservoirs, which are the only commercially exploited ones up to now, are usually found several (1-3 km) kilometers deep, and they should be exploited in a sustainable way. Thus, in order to support decisions on optimal exploitation policies, efforts focused on investigating how reservoirs respond to exploitation are routinely made. The better strategies always involve a compromise of controlling energy extraction from geothermal reservoirs without overexploiting the resource. Currently, methods based on the analysis of monitoring data of either the geochemical characteristics of fluids discharged (water and steam) or production data gathered from wells have been used to assess the reservoir performance, making it possible to predict the occurrence of negative processes in terms of production. However, by the analysis of combined geochemical and production data through simulation of wells, the well-bottom thermodynamic conditions of fluids are included in the study, allowing more reliable results to be obtained. Besides, the comparison of actual patterns of behavior of chemical and production indicators with those characteristic for typical processes, helps in identifying different physical phenomena and in deciding which is dominant in the case of the occurrence of more than one processes.