Potential Application of Slimhole Drilling Technology to Geothermal Wells in Vietnam

Potential Application of Slimhole Drilling

Technology to Geothermal Wells in Vietnam

Quang Khanh Do1(&)

, Truc Doan1

, Trong Quang Hoang1

,

Thi Tam Thanh Nguyen2

, and Tam Tran3

1 Faculty of Geology and Petroleum Engineering, Bach Khoa University (BKU),

Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

[email protected] 2 Faculty of Heat-Refrigeration Engineering, Industrial University of Ho Chi

Minh City (IUH), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 3 Department Energy and Resources Engineering, Chonnam National University

(CNU), Gwangju, South Korea

Abstract. The development of geothermal energy in Vietnam is one of many

critical solutions to satisfy the increasing energy demand and ensure the

country’s energy security. Vietnam is estimated to have a geothermal potential

of up to 400 MW capacity. A recent study shows that there are more than 300

geothermal energy sources in Vietnam territory with the temperatures from 30 °C

to 148 °C. However, many geothermal energy projects in Vietnam mostly remain

at the researching stage and are still under-development due to many reasons, in

which the lack of knowledge and information on geothermal drilling technology

and potential environment impact plays a significant part. Hence, development of

geothermal energy project in this area has many challenges to overcome.

Application of slimhole drilling technology has been used successfully in the

geothermal and oil and gas industry. The technology is a proven method to

reduce drilling cost and minimize environmental impact for exploration and

development activities. Therefore, many technical aspects of application of this

technology are discussed in this paper. In addition, the paper also provides the

many benefits of using slimhole drilling as compared to conventional drilling.

In brief, this paper describes the possibility of applying the slimhole drilling

technology in the development of geothermal energy projects in Vietnam for

cost reduction and environmental impact minimization.

Keywords: Geothermal energy
Environmental impact
Slimhole drilling

Binary cycle plant

1 Introduction

Geothermal resources in Vietnam is considered as potential energy to supply the

increasing energy demand and ensure the country’s energy security in the next decade

years. These resources have found more than 260 sites at surface temperature from 30 °C

to 148 °C (Fig. 1). The investigation and research of the geothermal resources has

evaluated as a small to moderate geothermal potential for developing a low-capacity

geothermal power plant. Currently, there are not any geothermal resources in Vietnam

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019

M. F. Randolph et al. (Eds.): VSOE 2018, LNCE 18, pp. 239–244, 2019.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2306-5_32