Geothermal Wellbore Surveying Challenges

Recorded On: 03/02/2023

Geothermal wells have traditionally been as simple as possible in terms of surveying their position. This is generally due to temperature and cost constraints, negating either the possibility or necessity. Equally conventional geothermal wells have some significant disadvantages in terms of water usage, brine production and operational costs.

Advanced Geothermal Systems like closed loop Geothermal where two wellbores are tied together to have a continual convection fluid flow solve most of the conventional geothermal challenges but provide some significant drilling challenges. This presentation outlines the principles of closed loop geothermal, the drilling engineering challenges with a focus on the most significant of them, how do you join two 8.5km wells at the toe reliably.

This webinar is categorized under the Drilling technical discipline.

All content contained within this webinar is copyrighted by Ross Lowdon and its use and/or reproduction outside the portal requires express permission from Ross Lowdon.

Ross Lowdon

Ross has been working in the Oil and gas industry for the last 30 years working for different service companies, and is now the head of wellbore surveying and telemetry in Schlumberger.

Ross has been involved with the SPE for the last 20 years, previously with the SPE Aberdeen chapter and as the SPE Wellbore Surveying Technical Section Chairperson. Ross has published 30+ SPE papers and holds multiple patents with others pending.

David Gibson (Moderator)

David Gibson is an engineer-turned-entrepreneur. He owns and manages Gibson Reports, a MWD and Directional Drilling market research firm as well as a partner and board member for several start-up companies. Launching his oilfield career as a UTA-trained Mechanical Engineer, David has a 15-year track record of working for both major and independent service providers in global and domestic onshore and offshore capacities operating a wide range of tools from survey-on-connection to offshore penta-combos.

Serving in leadership roles ranging from Sub-Committee Chair to Board of Directors in several professional oil and gas associations like IADD, SPE, AADE and IADC, David is a public speaker and has been featured on 25+ different industry podcasts and livestreams to date.

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