Case Study: Ecopetrol turns high-water-cut wells into geothermal assets with CMG STARS

Ecopetrol turns high-water-cut wells into geothermal assets with Computer Modelling Group, delivering 4.5×10⁷ BTU/day

The Colombian national oil company Ecopetrol faced a challenge with its mature fields in the Llanos Orientales asset, where high-water-cut wells were typically seen as liabilities due to declining production and rising costs. Computer Modelling Group was engaged to help evaluate if these wells could be repurposed as a geothermal energy resource using their STARS thermal reservoir simulator.

Using a coupled geothermal simulation workflow from Computer Modelling Group, the solution integrated reservoir simulation with wellbore heat-loss modelling. The results revealed that many existing wells could be converted into a viable geothermal asset, delivering over 4.5 × 10⁷ BTU/day of usable thermal energy, equivalent to hundreds of kW of continuous heat, with minimal infrastructure modification.

Ecopetrol