Geothermal Sweet Spots, District Heating in France | SLB

Identifying sweet spots to increase geothermal production in a district heating project

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France, Europe, Onshore

Using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logging to target sections for stimulation, a customer in France increased geothermal production by 150% for a district heating project. The unique horizontal doublet well design and capabilities of multiple technologies enabled the company to achieve its production targets while optimizing its investment.

An operator in the Paris Basin needed to identify sections along a lateral geothermal well that had predominantly large pores within thin, porous carbonate layers. This identification was crucial to target areas for stimulation and to effectively meet geothermal production targets.

Within porous layers, flow is primarily a function of pore size. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logging enables mapping the distribution of pore sizes along a lateral well to help identify areas with the highest potential flow rates. Running this technology on a tractor for efficient logging operations also allows for distinguishing sections with very large pores from equally porous sections with less favorable pore size distributions. Stimulating the identified sweet spots with the optimal treatment and connecting multiple porous layers through the unique horizontal doublet well design enabled the operator to target specific sections for stimulation and optimize investment.

This approach led to a 150% increase in geothermal production compared with traditional doublets in the area.

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