Turning High-Water-Cut Wells into Geothermal Assets: A Colombian Mature Field Case Study Using CMG STARS

In mature oil fields, high-water-cut wells are often viewed as liabilities and candidates for abandonment due to declining hydrocarbon production and rising operating costs.

But in this Colombian field, those same wells contained something valuable that had never been fully quantified: Thermal energy.

Using a coupled geothermal simulation workflow in CMG STARS, the team evaluated whether produced water from mature wells could become a viable low-enthalpy geothermal resource.

The study integrated:

• thermal reservoir simulation
• production history
• coupled wellbore heat-loss modelling
• surface thermal energy estimation

Outcome: The results revealed that many high-water-cut wells could deliver: