Heat harvesting of end-of-life wells
The present disclosure generally relates to harvesting geothermal energy from mature and near end-of-life oil and gas reservoirs that have been subjected to secondary oil recovery steam processes like steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), steamflood, etc. The geothermal potential of these mature SAGD reservoirs can be used to generate green electricity thus reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint of the oil production. Lateral spacing of injectors and producers, with closing of unused members of a well-pair for energy recovery is described.
1 . A geothermal energy production system comprising:
a) a plurality of end-of-life wells in a reservoir;
b) at least one end-of-life injection well fitted for injection of fluid;
c) at least one end-of-life production well being fitted for production of hot fluid and laterally spaced from a nearest end-of-life injection well fitted for injection of fluid by a distance D;
d) any remaining end-of-life wells being closed;
e) said at least one end-of-life production well being fluidly coupled to an energy recovery system to convert geothermal energy from said hot fluid to electricity; and
f) means for carrying or storing said electricity,
g) wherein said plurality of end-of-life wells are arranged in well-pairs, each well-pair having a horizontal injection well parallel to and over a horizontal production well, and wherein each alternate injection well is fitted for injection and each injection well therebetween is closed and each closed injection well is paired with an end-of-life production well fitted for production.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said distance D is from 50 to 2000 meters.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said distance D is from 100 to 500 meters.
4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said energy recovery system is electrically connected to a steam production system for generating steam or to oil wells to heat an adjacent portion of said reservoir.
5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said energy recovery system is electrically connected to a subsurface heat generating system.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said energy recovery system is electrically connected to an electricity storage system.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said energy recovery system is electrically connected to a grid for distributing electricity.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said fluid is water and said hot fluid is water, steam, or water and steam.