Regional Thermal Exploration

Research aims at the determination of petrophysical (thermal) parameters of geological formations of Mesozoic and Cenozoic age of the North German Basin to further clarify regional heat flow. In addition, heat flow and thermal rock parameters are important for the quantification of operational aspects in the utilization of geothermal reservoir systems.
 

Tasks/aims:

•    Laboratory measurement of thermal conductivity and porosity on core from geothermal aquifers in the North German Basin. Regional assessment of facies changes in these reservoirs and of their influence on formation thermal conductivity.
•    Development of a methodology for the calculation of thermal conductivity from petrophysical well logs and comparison of the results with the results from inverted temperature logs.
•    Verification of the calculated thermal conductivity borehole profiles by comparison with laboratory values. Application of the methodology to subregions of the North German Basin to determine the terrestrial heat flow.  
 

Contact:

Dr. Andrea Förster (German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ)
Sven Fuchs (German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ)

Interfaces:

Reservoir geology, process modelling

Borehole locations (dots) studied in the framework of GeoEn. NEGB: Northeast German Basin, NWGB: Northwest German Basin. In grey: depth to base of Zechstein (from Doornenbal, H. and Stevenson, A. (Ed.) et al., 2010).
 

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