Geothermal Investigations in Permafrost Regions—The Duration of Temperature Monitoring after Wellbores Shut-In

Abstract

The most important data on the thermal regime of the Earth’s interior come from temperature measurements in deep boreholes. The drilling process greatly alters the temperature field of formations surrounding the wellbore. In permafrost regions, due to thawing of the formation surrounding the wellbore during drilling, representative data can be obtained only by repeated observations over a long period of time (up to 10 years). Usually a number of temperature logs (3 - 10) are taken after the well’s shut-in. Significant expenses (manpower, transportation) are required to monitor the temperature regime of deep wells. In this paper we show that in most of the cases (when the time of refreezing formations is less than the shut-in time) two temperature logs are sufficient to predict formations temperatures during shut-in, to determine the geothermal gradients, and to evaluate the thickness of the permafrost zone. Thus the cost of monitoring the temperature regime of deep wells after shut-in can be drastically reduced. A simple method to process field data (for the well sections below and above the permafrost base) is presented. Temperature logs conducted in two wells were used to demonstrate utilization of this method.