Numerical modeling of high-temperature deep wells in the Cerro Prieto geothermal field, Mexico
Main Article Content
Abstract
A numerical modeling study of three non-producing deep geothermal wells from Cerro Prieto is presented. We compute the expected production characteristics of these wells in order to determine if their inability to sustain flow was due to (i) heat loss effects in the well, (ii) the influence of production casing diameters, (iii) the transient heat loss during the first few days of well discharge, or (iv) the effect of secondary low-enthalpy inflows. A new version of the wellbore flow simulator called GEOPOZO v2.0 was developed to solve the equations of conservation of mass, mo- mentum and energy for steady or transient one- and two-phase flow in geothermal wells. It was found that all three wells should have sustained production. The early heat losses were so large that the wells need to be induced and they would only sustain flow after several days of induced discharge. For well M-202 the match between measured and computed temperature profiles for a secondary feedzone suggests that the inflow of colder waters was responsible for stopping the flow of this well.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References
ARAGON, A., A. GARCIA, A. BACA and E. GONZALEZ, 1999. Comparison of measured and simulated pressure and temperature (PT) profiles. Geofísica Internacional, 38, 1, 35-42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22201/igeof.00167169p.1999.38.1.898
ASCENCIO, F., 1990. Pronóstico de curvas características de producción. Geotermia, Rev. Mex. Geoen., 6, 3, 319-322.
BJORNSSON, G., 1987. A multi-feedzone geothermal wellbore simulator. MS Thesis, Univ. of California, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, USA, 102 pp. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2172/6569407
CHADKA, P. K., M. R. MALIN and A. PALACIO-PEREZ,1993. Modelling of two-phase flow inside geothermal wells. Appl. Math. Modelling, 17, 236-245. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0307-904X(93)90045-I
GARCIA, A. and E. SANTOYO, 1991. Pronóstico de la producción del pozo M-205 del campo geotérmico de Cerro Prieto, B. C. Report of Project by Instituto de Investigaciones Eléctricas to Comisión Federal de Electricidad, Report IIE/11/3167/I 01/F, Cuernavaca,México.
GARCIA, A., E. SANTOYO and I. HERNANDEZ, 1992. GEOPOZO: Simulador de flujo bifásico en pozos geotérmicos. In: Memorias del XVIII Congreso de la Academia Nacional de Ingeniería, Aguascalientes, México, September, pp. 245-249.
GARCIA, A., I. HERNANDEZ and I. and V. VALENZUELA, 1993. Ampliación del rango de utilización del simulador GEOPOZO. Report of Project by Instituto de Investigaciones Eléctricas to Comisión Federal de Electricidad, Report IIE/11/5571/I 01/F, Cuernavaca,México.
GARCIA, A., H. GUTIERREZ, F. ASCENCIO, L.GONZALEZ, and J. M. MORALES, 1995. Wellbore flow simulation: Study cases of several Mexican wells. In: Proceedings, World Geothermal Congress, II, 1503-1511, Florence, Ita., May 18-31.
GARCIA, A., E. SANTOYO, G. ESPINOSA, I. HERNANDEZ and H. GUTIERREZ, 1998. Estimation of temperatures in geothermal wells during circulation and shut-in in the presence of lost circulation. Transport in Porous Media, 33, 103-127. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006545610080
GARG, S. and COMBS, J., 1997. Use of slim holes with liquid feedzones for geothermal reservoir assessment. Geothermics, 26, 153-178. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0375-6505(96)00038-7
GNIELINSKI, V., 1976. New equations for heat and mass transfer in turbulent pipe and channel flow. Int. Chem. Engng., 16, 359-368.
GUTIERREZ, H., 1993. Estudio del pozo M-202 del campo geotérmico de Cerro Prieto. Report by Comisión Federalde Electricidad, Gerencia de Proyectos Geotermoeléctricos, Report OIY-CP-07/93, Morelia, Mich., México.
JASSO, C. A. and J. M. PEÑA, 1990. Evaluation of two-phase flow in geothermal well pipes utilizing the Orkiszewski model. Geothermal Resources Council Transactions, 14, 1, 415-421.
INTERNATIONAL FORMULATION COMMITTEE, IFC, 1967. The 1967 IFC formulation for industrial use: A formulation of the thermodynamic properties of ordinary water substance. Issued by the International Formulation Committee of the Sixth International Conference on the Properties of Steam, 32 pp.
LEAVER, J., 1984. Steam tables correlations (0-16 MPa). Unpublished report, Report by Ministry of Works and Development, New Zealand.
PALACIO-PEREZ, A., 1985. A computer code for determining the flow characteristics in a geothermal well. In: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Numerical Methods in Thermal Problems, Swansea, U. K., July., 215-220.
MENZIES, A. J., E. E. GRANADOS, H. GUTIERREZ, and L. ORTEGA, L., 1995. Modeling discharge requirements for deep geothermal wells at the Cerro Prieto geothermal field, México. In: Proceedings of the 20th. Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering, Stanford, CA., 63-69.
MERCER, J. W. and C. R. FAUST, 1976. Simulation of water and vapor-dominated hydrothermal reservoirs. Soc. Petr. Engrs. of AIME, Paper SPE 5520. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2523/5520-MS
MEYER, C. A., R. B. MCCLINTOCK, G. J. SILVESTRI, and R. C. SPENCER, 1968. ASME Steam Tables. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2nd. ed., New York,328 pp.
SANCHEZ, P., 1990. El simulador de pozos SIMU89. Geotermia, Rev. Mex. Geoen., 6, 141-154.
WALLIS, G. B., 1969. One dimensional two-phase flow. McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York.
WILLHITE, G. P., 1967. Over-all heat transfer coefficients in steam and hot water injection wells. J. Pet. Tech., 607-615. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2118/1449-PA