Date: 10 - 12 Jun 2024
Location: Green Town Labs, Houston
Tutor: Malcolm Ross: Lecturer, Rice University, Texas

This course will offer geoscientists an understanding of how they can use and adapt their expertise gained in the oil and gas industry to the growing geothermal industry. Participants will be introduced to the fundamentals of a variety of geothermal system styles and be guided through the exploration and development of a project, focusing on subsurface workflows based on those used for oil and gas. The course is intended as an introduction to the entire lifecycle of a geothermal resource, covering aspects of geoscience and some engineering.

You will learn to:

1. Describe the fundamentals of geothermal energy and how it is harnessed and used.
2. Understand the key subsurface characteristics of geothermal resources and reservoirs.
3. Understand what exploration tools (seismic, potential fields, geochemistry), exploration data (bottom hole temperatures, gradient surveys) and exploration approaches (basin modelling, play-based exploration) are used in geothermal exploration, which ones are in common with oil and gas, and how their uses differ.
4. Define the subsurface geoscience requirements for a geothermal project, including the key similarities and differences with an oil and gas project.
5. Appreciate the data types and subsurface workflows involved in a geothermal project.
6. Examine the key project risks and uncertainties in developing geothermal resources and how they are mitigated.

The course will provide participants with an understanding of how geothermal systems work and how their present subsurface geoscience skills can be utilized in geothermal projects. Importantly, the course will also outline what new skills (‘upskilling’) they need to acquire. Some of this upskilling will come from the course, but some must come from deeper-dive, subject-specific courses.

Key themes:

• Fundamentals of geothermal energy (what it is, what are its uses and how we classify geothermal systems)
• Global industry perspective (where does the industry operate, what are the job roles, where is the future growth and what are the challenges)
• The business basics – techno-economic estimation and supply chain
• Geothermal resource characterization – temperature and geologic settings
• Geothermal exploration – the tools, data, software and workflows
• Geothermal production – engineering, drilling, well design and technologies
• Case studies and project examples

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