Squeezing the Barrel: Knowledge exchange adds value to oilfields in decline

石油和天然气工业常规地钻探深度和温度适合于地热提取和在某些情况下发电的威尔斯井，但是在基于化石的和地热能研究之间或在相关工业内几乎没有交叉。英国石油工业已经步入中年，石油产量在过去10年中一直在下降。尽管如此，大多数老化的油田已经恢复了不到50%的石油。对于大多数油田来说，水与石油一起生产，但数量要大得多（通常是十倍或二十倍），通常在高达100 ℃的温度下发现。通常，这些水在海上处置或重新注入油井之前进行清洁。石油工业作为水处理和清洁工业有效地运作，石油是一种有价值的副产品。该项目探讨了利用联产水作为地热能源直接供暖和发电的机会。有证据表明，如果将提取地热能后产生的冷却水重新注入油井，可以提高油井的石油采收率。在英国越来越依赖从美国和俄罗斯等其他国家进口化石燃料的情况下，剩余本土资源的经济复苏将对英国的石油供应安全产生重大影响。NERC在支持英国深层地热研究方面有着悠久的历史，在20世纪80年代达到顶峰，以应对20世纪70年代的石油危机。这项研究包括在英国钻6个深（超过1公里）的测试孔，其中南安普顿钻孔是其中之一。这项研究的结论是，英国地热资源可以贡献高达100%的英国热量需求，并有可能产生一些电力。随后的NERC研究集中在英国深层沉积盆地提供的地热机会。最近，NERC支持英国地质调查局与纽卡斯尔大学和达勒姆大学一起在纽卡斯尔中心钻一个2公里深的地热井。这项研究计划将考虑现有的、可能的和潜在的地热机会。南安普顿井提供了一个现有的，经过验证的地热系统，已提供了一个区域范围的供暖计划约25年。多塞特郡的Wytch农场油田提供了一个可能的机会，在那里，从联合生产的水中获得的废热至少比从南安普顿的地热井中获得的废热高20倍。在对估计1500口深威尔斯的陆上勘探井数据进行检查后，将得出新地热系统的潜在机会。将对其中的一部分进行检查，以绘制一张地图，表明存在威尔斯的地热潜力地区。对于这些现有的、可能的和潜在的机会，该项目将考虑南安普顿是否可以在供热之外发电，Wytch Farm油田是否可以用于生产地热和电力，以供应邻近的城镇，以及英国各地的新地点是否有机会。 这一提议的新奇将热量的生产与电力生产的潜力和振兴油田的潜力结合在一起。有机朗肯循环（ORC）技术可以在低于沸点的温度下从水中发电。目前有关优化（ORC）系统的研究正在达勒姆工程学院进行，并已证明地热流体可能是发电的潜在目标。现在，将NERC支持的地热研究所获得的知识转移到石油行业的机会已经到来，这有可能为现有业务增加价值，并为英国提供低碳能源。

The oil and gas industry routinely drills wells of depth and hence temperature suitable for geothermal heat extraction and in some instances electricity generation but there has been little crossover between fossil based and geothermal energy research or within the relevant industries. The UK petroleum industry has reached middle age and oil production has been declining over the past 10 years. Despite this, most aging oilfields have recovered less than 50% of their oil in place. For most oilfields, water is produced alongside oil but in much greater quantities (typically ten or twentyfold) and is commonly found at temperatures of up to 100oC. Usually this water is cleaned prior to disposal at sea or re-injected into the oil well. The petroleum industry effectively operates as a water handling and clean-up industry with oil being a valuable by-product. This project explores the opportunity to exploit co-produced water as a geothermal energy resource for both direct heating and power generation. There is evidence to suggest that the if the cooled water produced following the extraction of geothermal energy were re-injected into the oil well, this can improve the recovery of oil from the well. Economic recovery of remaining indigenous resources will have a major impact on security of oil supply for the UK at a time when the UK places increased reliance upon fossil fuels imports from other nations such as the USA and Russia. NERC has had a long history of supporting deep geothermal research in the UK which peaked during the 1980s in response to the 1970s oil crisis. This research included drilling 6 deep (in excess of 1 km) test bores in the UK of which the Southampton borehole was one. This research concluded that the UK geothermal resource could contribute up to 100% of the UK heat demand with the possibility of some electricity production. Subsequent NERC research has focused upon the geothermal opportunity offered by deep sedimentary basins in the UK. Most recently NERC has supported the involvement of the British Geological Survey alongside the Universities of Newcastle and Durham in drilling a 2km deep geothermal borehole in central Newcastle.This research proposal will consider existing, possible and potential geothermal opportunities. The Southampton well provides an existing, proven geothermal system that has been supplying a district wide heating scheme for around 25 years. A possible opportunity is provided by the Wytch Farm Oilfield in Dorset where the waste heat available from co-produced water is at least 20x greater than that available from the geothermal well at Southampton. Potential opportunities for new geothermal systems will be derived following an inspection of onshore exploration well data from an estimated 1500 deep wells. A subset of these will be examined to produce a map that suggests areas of geothermal potential where wells are present. For these existing, possible and potential opportunities, the project will consider whether Southampton could produce power in addition to heat, whether the Wytch Farm oilfield could be used to produce geothermal heat and power to supply neighbouring cities and towns and whether there are opportunities at new sites throughout the UK. The novelty of this proposal brings together the production of heat with the potential for power production and the potential to rejuvenate oilfields. Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) technology can produce power from water at temperatures less than boiling point. Current research relating to the optimisation of (ORC) systems is underway within the School of Engineering at Durham and has demonstrated that geothermal fluids could be a potential target for the generation of electricity. The opportunity to transfer the knowledge gained through the NERC supported geothermal research to the oil industry has now arrived and this has the potential to add value to existing operations and provide a source of low carbon energy for the UK.