Potential geothermal utilization of depleted oil and gas fields in Slovakia

Abstract

The following study was done as the Master thesis of the NEW ENERGY program, called "Renewable Energy in Central and Eastern Europe" of the Master Course. Its objective was, above all, to investigate the potential and current state of geothermal energy utilization in Slovakia and to explore possibilities for its further exploitation, specifically electricity production. Moreover, the study focused on geothermal applications in the hydrocarbon business, which utilizes depleted oil and gas fields for the new energy. The co-operation with the OMV Future Energy Fund, GmbH and the Slovak largest hydrocarbon exploration organisation Nafta, a.s. delivers interesting results which could be applied in the reality. The topic firstly focuses on the position of geothermal energy among the other renewables, with its benefits and difficulties. Then it shifts to the history of geothermal utilization with description of the specific conditions in the Slovak market. The main part of this study is aiming towards calculations of the potential energy, harvested from the existing depleted hydrocarbon boreholes. In fact, two options are considered, one system uses a borehole as a heat exchanger and the other system uses 2 interferenced wells for production and reinjection. The final chapter describes economical analyses of those boreholes.