The Challenges Unlocking the Geothermal Energy Potential in the South Permian Basin

Unlocking the enormous geothermal potential in the South Permian Basin is not without challenges.

Urban data acquisition, drilling and development of production facilities is required in cities where district heating infrastructure is already established and where there is a need for new heat production away from conventional fossil fuel production. A pre-requisite for a geothermal project to be developed is that the subsurface in the urban setting contains a hydrothermal reservoir. One of the main challenges, however, in understanding the risk and uncertainties related to these hydrothermal reservoirs as the subsurface evaluations are usually based on historic subsurface data (acquired for O&G exploration). These legacy data is usually scarce and of poor quality and usually absent in urban settings making the subsurface evaluations prone to high range of uncertainties.