Geothermal Engineering Group

Research Opportunity

We seek collaborations for the successful Geothermal Reservoir Engineering and Modelling Research Group. This Group has extensive experience in working with New Zealand and overseas-based organisations modelling geothermal fields and petroleum reservoirs, developing geothermal software tools and in the development of a geothermal reservoir simulator.
 

Research Team

The Geothermal Reservoir Engineering and Modelling Group is headed by Professor Mike O'Sullivan and currently comprises 2 academic staff, 3 research fellows and several graduate students.
 

Research Expertise

The Group has expertise in fundamental reservoir behaviour and the development of modelling tools. They have characterised the behaviour of geothermal fluids containing gases as well as dissolved salts, and have expanded this work to include tracers that partition differently between the liquid and gas phases. The Group also has expertise in oil and gas reservoirs and in coalbed methane extraction.

Currently they are running large complex models of geothermal fields in New Zealand and overseas. Very fast solvers have been developed as part of the reservoir simulator, as have a range of visualisation tools.

Model calibration is an important part of current research. An automated well test analysis package has been developed for local behaviour near a single well, and sophisticated optimization tools are being used to calibrate large models of whole reservoirs. Optimization tools are also being used in the context of planning well placement.

The group has research collaborations with several US institutions, which aim to develop an improved understanding of the impact of geological features on fluid flow.
Commercial Projects

The group has worked with Contact Energy for several years, and has developed models of Wairakei, Ohaaki and Mokai on their behalf. Petroleum reservoir simulation studies have also been performed for New Zealand and overseas agencies.