Estimation of Temperatures in Geothermal Wells During Circulation and Shut-in in the Presence of Lost Circulation

The estimation of temperatures in and around a geothermal well during circulation, and during shut-in conditions in the presence of lost circulation is presented in this work. Estimated temperatures are compared with temperature logs measured during drilling stoppages. Temperatures were estimatted using a computer code specifically developed to account for the transient convective heat transfer due to lost circulation in the rock surrounding a well. This feature of the present code is important since wellbore simulators normally consider the heat transfer process in the rock as a merely conductive problem. The code is capable of accounting for these losses at any point in the well and application was made to the study of two Mexican geothermal wells(well LV-3 from the Las Tres Vírgenes field and well EAZ-2 from the Los Azufres field). The results show that the effect of lost circulation on the shut-in temperature profiles can be modelled satisfactorily. Research is under way to improve the present methodology.