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Big opportunities for geothermal utilising co-produced fluids in oil drilling

Big opportunities for geothermal utilising co-produced fluids in oil drilling Oil Well in Reagan County, Texas (source: flickr/ J. Stephen Conn, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 14 Oct 2015

Oil drilling activities produce a lot of water, often seven barrels of hot water for each barrel of oil or gas. This provides a great opportunity for either these firms utilising it for power generation or someone else tapping into the big opportunity of co-produced fluids.

On Monday, we reported on some research done on geothermal well data and the estimation of the geothermal potential in a basin stretching the States of Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado.

In the same report the researchers describe why they want oil and gas drillers to adopt geothermal technology. According to their research, “for every barrel of oil or gas extracted, drillers generate seven barrels of hot water — water that could be used to produce geothermal” power production.

Utilising these co-produced fluids by oil firms drilling for oil is possible. It would allow “re-purposing infrastructure no longer used by oil and gas drillers, or ongoing drilling operations could adopt geothermal technology as a side project. That water could be used to power geothermal turbines and produce extra electricity — electricity that could be sold to help the bottom line and lessen the carbon footprint of fossil fuel companies.”

Learn more about co-produced fluids and the possibility of utilising them for power production, read this article on the website of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Source: UPI