IPA12-E-114

PROCEEDINGS, INDONESIAN PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION

Thirty-Sixth Annual Convention & Exhibition, May 2012

SELECTION OF BEST DRILLING DESIGN FOR GEOTHERMAL DRILLING – CASE STUDIES

Bonar Tua Halomoan Marbun*

Samuel Zulkhifly Sinaga*
Sandro Priatmojo M *
Theodorus Gunawan*

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION

Geothermal drilling technology is adapted from oil
and gas drilling technology. Most geothermal wells
are designed following the same principles as those
used in the oil and gas industry. While geothermal
reservoirs are similar to oil/gas reservoirs, the facts
show that there are distinctions that cannot be
marginalized in geothermal well design. The main
challenges associated with geothermal drilling are
related mostly to the hardness of igneous and
metamorphic rocks being drilled, the high
temperature of the formation (average temperature
gradient for geothermal well is 12o - 13o F/100 ft
but could be more) (Teodoriu et al., 2009) and the
typically under-pressured strata.
The non-productive time (NPT) often occurs in
geothermal drilling, mainly caused by wellbore
instability problems (Marbun et al., 2012). The
majority of NPT occurrences are directly related to
inappropriate well planning and design. The
research reported herein presents a comprehensive
study to evaluate drilling design and best
engineering practices for geothermal fields in
Indonesia. The specific aspects, NPT and
productive time will be analyzed and identified
related to well design, geologic, geophysics and
reservoir condition, and also production attainment
after drilling. The focus of the study is to create a
planning management system based on drilling
performance analysis, coupled with geothermal
drilling research. The planning aspects consist of
the details of preparation, the drilling process and
evaluation management, to achieve a perfect well
drilling time. Another focus of the study is to create
an evaluation system for drilling execution, which
can monitor the time and cost of drilling in each
process, section, and total drilling operation, and
link comparisons between wells.
Geothermal energy is the result of heat transfer
through a conduction or a convection process. Heat
transfer through hot rocks is the conduction process,
whereas convection occurs through the contact
between water and a heat source. The average
temperature gradient in a geothermal reservoir
could reach 12-13 oF/100 ft or even more (usually in
an oil field it is about 5oF/100 ft) (Teodoriu et al.,
2009).
Apart from its high temperature, the other
characteristic of geothermal fields is the presence of
fractures coupled to underpressured strata of a
reservoir giving rise to a lost circulation problem
while drilling. In addition, most types of rock in a
geothermal reservoir are igneous and metamorphic,
a hard rock type, which will affect the performance
of the bit and the rate of its penetration. The other
distinction between oil/gas reservoirs and
geothermal ones is the production fluid type, as in a
geothermal reservoir the production fluid is vapor
or hot water (Marbun et al., 2011).
The expense of drilling a geothermal well is on the
average higher than that for an oil or gas reservoir,
usually 2 to 5 times higher for the same depth
(Augustine et al., 2006). This is mainly caused by
the characteristics of the reservoir and its fluid. The
schematic of a geothermal system is shown in
Figure 1.
There are two kinds of fluid production: one phase
and two phase. One phase system is usually water
with temperature around 90 - 1800C and the two
phase system consists of vapour-dominated and
waterdominated. Both of the dominated systems
affect pressure and temperature profile to depth, as
shown in Figures 2 and 3. The classification of
geothermal system by enthalpy is shown in Table 1.

The history of drilling in geothermal systems began

by using cable tool drilling rigs. A heavy chisel
* Institute of Technology Bandung suspended on a wire cable pounded the earth to