An Example of Synergy between Hydrocarbon and Geothermal Energy Production in the Netherlands

After the successful development of a geothermal site in 2007 in the Netherlands, interest in geothermal development has increased. The large amount of data gathered for the hydrocarbon industry shows good potential in the north of the Netherlands often in the same areas in which hydrocarbon production occurs. However, concerns about interference between the two activities have also increased. We will show a case study of the concurrent production from a gas field and a geothermal doublet. The geothermal doublet is located in an active aquifer, that is in hydraulic connection with the gas field. The case study is based on the Roden field, which is a typical Rotliegend gas field in the north of the Netherlands. A reservoir simulation model was created in which the aquifer is simulated explicitly. The gas field is produced from two wells and a geothermal doublet is located in the aquifer at a distance of 500m from the gas field. The presence of the geothermal doublet increased the field cumulative gas production by 3.3% from 6.65 bcm to 6.87 bcm. The presence of the geothermal producer delayed the water breakthrough in one of the production wells, increasing the field life by about a year.