The Newberry Volcano EGS Demonstration in central Oregon, a 3 year project started in 2010, tests recent technological advances designed to reduce the cost of power generated by EGS in a hot, dry well (NWG 55-29) drilled in 2008. First, the stimulation pumps used were designed to run for weeks and deliver large volumes of water at moderate well-head pressure. Second, to stimulate multiple zones, AltaRock developed thermo-degradable zonal isolation materials (TZIMs) to seal off fractures in a geothermal well to stimulate secondary and tertiary fracture zones. The TZIMs degrade within weeks, resulting in an optimized injection/ production profile of the entire well. Third, the project followed a project-specific Induced Seismicity Mitigation Plan (ISMP) to evaluate, monitor for, and mitigate felt induced seismicity. Stimulation started October 17, 2012 and continued for 7 weeks, with over 41,000 m3 of water injected. Two TZIM treatments successfully shifted the depth of stimulation. Injectivity, DTS, and seismic analysis indicate that fracture permeability in well NWG 55-29 was enhanced by two orders of magnitude.

The Newberry Volcano EGS Demonstration in central Oregon, a 5 year project begun in 2010, tests recent technological advances designed to reduce the cost of power generated by EGS in a hot, dry well (NWG 55-29) drilled in 2008. First, the stimulation pumps used were designed to run for weeks and deliver large volumes of water at moderate well-head pressure. Second, to stimulate multiple zones, AltaRock developed thermo-degradable zonal isolation materials (TZIMs) to seal off fractures in a geothermal well to stimulate secondary and tertiary fracture zones. The TZIMs degrade within weeks, resulting in an optimized injection/ production profile of the entire well. Third, the project followed a project-specific Induced Seismicity Mitigation Plan (ISMP) to evaluate, monitor for, and mitigate felt induced seismicity. An initial stimulation was conducted in 2012 and continued for 7 weeks, with over 41,000 m3 of water injected. Further analysis indicated a shallow casing leak and an unstable formation in the open hole. The well was repaired with a shallow casing tieback and perforated liner in the open hole and re-stimulated in 2014. The second stimulation started September 23rd, 2014 and continued for 3 weeks with over 9,500 m3 of water injected. The well was treated with several batches of newly tested TZIM diverter materials and a newly designed Diverter Injection Vessel Assembly (DIVA), which was the main modification to the original injection system design used in 2012. A second round of stimulation that included two perforation shots and additional batches of TZIM was conducted on November 11th, 2014 for 9 days with an additional 4,000 m3 of water injected. The stimulations resulted in a 3-4 fold increase in injectivity, and PTS data indicates partial blocking and creation of flow zones near the bottom of the well.

The Newberry Volcano EGS Demonstration in central Oregon, a 5 year project begun in 2010, tests recent technological advances designed to reduce the cost of power generated by EGS in a hot, dry well (NWG 55-29) drilled in 2008. First, the stimulation pumps used were designed to run for weeks and deliver large volumes of water at moderate well-head pressure. Second, to stimulate multiple zones, AltaRock developed thermo-degradable zonal isolation materials (TZIMs) to seal off fractures in a geothermal well to stimulate secondary and tertiary fracture zones. The TZIMs degrade within weeks, resulting in an optimized injection/ production profile of the entire well. Third, the project followed a project-specific Induced Seismicity Mitigation Plan (ISMP) to evaluate, monitor for, and mitigate felt induced seismicity. An initial stimulation was conducted in 2012 and continued for 7 weeks, with over 41,000 m3 of water injected. Further analysis indicated a shallow casing leak and an unstable formation in the open hole. The well was repaired with a shallow casing tieback and perforated liner in the open hole and re-stimulated in 2014. The second stimulation started September 23rd, 2014 and continued for 3 weeks with over 9,500 m3 of water injected. The well was treated with several batches of newly tested TZIM diverter materials and a newly designed Diverter Injection Vessel Assembly (DIVA), which was the main modification to the original injection system design used in 2012. A second round of stimulation that included two perforation shots and additional batches of TZIM was conducted on November 11th, 2014 for 9 days with an additional 4,000 m3 of water injected. The stimulations resulted in a 3-4 fold increase in injectivity, and PTS data indicates partial blocking and creation of flow zones near the bottom of the well.

Newberry Volcano in Central Oregon is the site of a Department of Energy funded Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) Demonstration Project. Stimulation and production of an EGS is a strong perturbation to the physical and chemical environment, giving rise to coupled Thermal-Hydrological-Mechanical-Chemical (THMC) processes leading to permeability changes as a result of mineral dissolution and precipitation, rock deformation, and fracture reactivation. To evaluate these processes, and to help guide EGS stimulation and reservoir development strategies, a combined native-state and reservoir model of the west flank of Newberry Volcano was created that encompasses the planned stimulation zone and a several km region of the west flank from the surface down to the supercritical region, likely close to a postulated cooling intrusive body. Temperature and pressure distributions were first modeled using TOUGHREACT with boundary conditions estimated from nearby drill holes, and compared to measurements made in the over 3 km deep NWG 55-29 drill hole. With estimates of the porosity and heat capacities for the major hydrogeologic units, thermal conductivities were calibrated by matching to the measured temperature profile. To simulate the development of the observed hydrothermal mineralogy, a reaction-transport model (THC) was developed using the pre-alteration mineralogy and shallow groundwater chemistry as the initial geochemical conditions, assuming that modeled temperature and pressure distributions were relatively constant over several thousand years. Close correspondence of modeled and observed epidote distributions support the observation that past hydrothermal activity took place under thermal gradients similar to current values, whereas calcite and sulfide abundances at depth likely require a magmatic gas component. Multicomponent geothermometry was used to estimate potential temperatures of equilibration of waters, and to evaluate the effects of kinetics on calculated mineral equilibration temperatures. The ultimate goal will be to capture both the local chemical and mechanical changes in the rock owing to stimulation as well as the potential long-term response and sustainability of the larger-scale geothermal reservoir.

Validation of Innovative Exploration Technologies for Newberry Volcano: Report of 4-D seismic Analysis by Apex HiPoint (Sigma3) 2012

Validation of Innovative Exploration Technologies for Newberry Volcano: Report of 4-D seismic Analysis by Apex HiPoint (Sigma3) 2012

Validation of Innovative Exploration Technologies for Newberry Volcano: Seismic data - raw taken by Apex Hipoint for 1st test 2012 (data in .ff format)

Research references to literature about the Newberry geothermal area, Oregon.

Research references to literature about the Newberry geothermal area, Oregon.