The next R&D Technical Section webinar will take place at 9 am CST on Monday 17 October:
Topic: Utah FORGE: Engineering an Enhanced Geothermal System
Speaker: Prof. John McLennan, Department of Chemical Engineering, Energy & Geoscience Institute and Department of Civil Engineering, University of Utah.
Registration
SPE Online Education: Utah FORGE: Engineering an Enhanced Geothermal System
Webinar Abstract
The U.S. Department of Energy's (U.S. DOE) Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) is a field laboratory for developing and testing new technologies for characterizing, creating, and sustaining Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) in a controlled environment.
In 2018, the U.S. DOE selected a site near Milford, Utah, for the FORGE laboratory. The location met the criteria of adequate and accessible subsurface temperature with benign seismicity and appropriate environmental attributes. Since its inception, multiple vertical monitoring wells -for geophone emplacement – have been drilled, along with a 65° lateral.
This inclined well, 16A(78)-32, drilled in late 2020, was stimulated in three stages near its toe during April 2022. A second inclined well will be drilled in early 2023 to penetrate microseismic clouds from these treatments. These three stages will test open hole versus cased-perforated completions, low viscosity versus "temperature-tolerant" higher viscosity fluids, temperature tolerant isolation and perforation technologies, and an assessment of the role of natural fractures during stimulation in crystalline formations. Areas of technology development are highlighted including cementing, isolation, treatment strategies, conductivity and connectivity development, and challenges related to conformance and immunity to undesirable seismicity.
Speaker Background
Since October 2009, Professor John McLennan has been a faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Utah. He has been a Senior Research Scientist at the Energy & Geoscience Institute and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Utah since January 2008. He has a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto, awarded in 1980. Before joining the University of Utah he had more than twenty-five years of experience with petroleum service and technology companies. He worked for Dowell and Dowell Schlumberger in Denver, Tulsa, and Houston, with TerraTek in Salt Lake City, Advantek International in Houston, and ASRC Energy Services in Anchorage. He has worked on projects concerned with subsurface energy recovery and storage (hydrocarbon, geothermal) in a variety of reservoir environments throughout the world.