Current Abstract

May 13th, 2025 Meeting Abstract

“Surface & Wireline Borehole Geophysical Measurements in Geothermal Exploration & Repurposing Idle Oil and Gas Wells as Low-Temperature Commercial Heat Sources”

Presented by: 

Donald G. Hill, Ph.D. & Qianru Qi, Ph.D.

Abstract: 

Geothermal Resources have been utilized
by humans, since prehistory for:

• Hot Springs.
• Hallucinogenic Highs.
• Mineral Waters.
• Entertainment.
• Heating.
• Electrical Power Generation.
• Hydroponic Agriculture.
The current presentation discusses:
• Geothermal Power E&P.
• Repurposing Depleted Oil & Gas
Wells, as Low Temperature Heat
sources for Commercial Facilities
such as Greenhouses & Warehouses.

Biography:

Donald G. Hill attended Michigan State University and The University of Minnesota, earning a PhD in Geology and Exploration Geophysics. For over the past 50+ years, he has conducted word-wide geophysics and petophysics research and E&P projects for Environmental, Geothermal, Minerals, Petroleum, and Uranium evaluation projects. He served on the Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratory

“Geothermal Logging Tool Project Industry Advisory Councils”, which lead to High- Temperature Digital Logging Sonde development. Finally, he taught the Applied

Petrophyics Class in the University of Southern California Petroleum Engineering Program, for 14 years. Dr. Hill is a member of AAPG, SEG, SPE, and SPWLA. He also served on the Editorial Board for the 1982 SPWLA Geothermal Log Interpretation Handbook and Organized the initial SPWLA Student Paper Competition, for the 2015 Long Beach Annual Symposium, which has since become an annual event.

Qianru Qi, Ph.D.

She works as a Research Associate at the Ershaghi Center for Energy Transition at the University of Southern California. Her work includes repurposing idle O&G wells for low- to mid-
temperature geothermal energy. and for long-term subsurface carbon dioxide sequestration. She has 12 publications with the SPE ( Society of Petroleum Engineers) on various topics,
including environmental safety in oilfields, fractured reservoirs, and developing high conductivity thief zones under fluid injection. In her Ph.D. dissertation, she developed an algorithm to model sand particle movement under high flow rates. She received her MS and Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering in 2014 and 2020, respectively, from the University of Southern California.