Webinar – Improved geothermal well testing with downhole shutin, 23 May 2025
Focus on Geothermal webinar - Geothermal well testing - downhole shutin is a must
Carlo Cariaga
19 May 2025
Join us for on 23 May 2025 for a webinar on geothermal well testing procedure utilizing downhole shutin to better measure true reservoir response.
As part of the regular Focus on Geothermal Webinar series – a partnership of Enerchange and ThinkGeoEnergy, we are proud to host Pieter Bruijnen of EBN for a webinar on “Geothermal well testing – testing with a downhole shutin is a must.”
Date: 23 May 2025
Time: 14:00 CEST / 08:00 EST
Registration: Click here to register
Speaker: Pieter Bruijnen, Reservoir/Production Engineer at EBN
In geothermal wells, build-up phases of well tests are typically executed with a surface shut-in, rather than with a downhole shut-in. Therefore, wellbore physics may play a dominant, but highly undesirable, role in the system’s pressure response as recorded by the downhole pressure gauge.
Significant portions of the Bourdet derivatives of geothermal well tests are expressions of these wellbore effects, rather than the reservoir’s pressure response. Due to their intensity and duration, they often (if not always…) overprint the true reservoir response, thereby making a reliable analysis of the reservoir characteristics impossible.
In this webinar, numerical and analytical models show the consequences of not applying a downhole shutin while testing low-enthalpy geothermal wells. Although these simulations painfully expose the consequences and risks of wellbore physics, they cannot remove them. It is therefore strongly recommended to always execute a well test with a downhole shut-in, such that all wellbore effects are physically separated from the reservoir response. Only by doing so is the pressure recorded by the downhole gauge free of unwanted physical effects from the wellbore, allowing the reservoir parameters to be deduced with confidence.
Pieter Bruijnen is a reservoir / production engineer at EBN in The Netherlands. At EBN he is involved in the development of the geothermal industry and in Underground Hydrogen Storage. Previously he worked as a petroleum engineer at TAQA Energy and as a reservoir engineer for SGS. Pieter’s interests include reservoir characterisation, reservoir and well performance, production optimisation, and system integration.
Pieter holds an MSc degree in geology from Utrecht University in The Netherlands and an MSc degree in petroleum engineering from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK.
