Example 2 Chapter-8

Geothermal Gradient

Production logs were run on this vertical well producing oil and water in a field
under an intense basal waterflood. The logs reveal that the whole production
comes from a narrow interval at 16160 – 64, and detect a downward crossflow of
water with some oil, between 16170 and 16210. The temperature log is highly
unconventional.

1) At what depth can you pick the geothermal temperature? Explain.

2) Explain the value of the temperature of the water flowing between 16170 and
16210. Compare it with the geothermal temperature.

3) Explain the temperature log over the interval 16210 – TD.

Answers (discussion of the example).

In this flowing well producing 2500 bpd of oil and 700 bpd of water, the second track
from the left shows six stacked temperature profiles recorded while the well was
flowing. The temperature is geothermal at the point of entry of the fluids (depth
16160), but falls sharply below the point of entry below this depth. Between 16170
and 16210 the wellbore temperature is affected by a small crossflow of oil and water
downward from the production point. Below 16210, there is no fluid movement in the
well and the wellbore temperature has reached an equilibrium with the reservoir
temperature. The log shows that the reservoir temperature at the bottom of the well is
about 261 °F, about 12 degrees less than the geothermal temperature at that depth.
This is because in this field a basal waterflood project is in operation, and that the
large volumes of cold water continually being injected have affected the geothermal
gradient and contributed to reaching a thermal equilibrium, the heat gained by the
water in contact with the reservoir being balanced by the heat lost to the continued
cold water injection.