77 Copyright © Canadian Research & Development Center of Sciences and Cultures ISSN 1925-542X [Print] ISSN 1925-5438 [Online] www.cscanada.net www.cscanada.org Advances in Petroleum Exploration and Development Vol. 5, No. 1, 2013, pp. 77-91 DOI:10.3968/j.aped.1925543820130501.1145 Principal Points in Cementing Geothermal Wells Prisca Salim [a] ; Mahmood Amani [a],* [a] Texas A&M University at Qatar. * Corresponding author. Supported by the NPRP award [NPRP 09-489-2-182] from the Qatar National Research Fund. Received 7 February 2013; accepted 17 March 2013 Abstract Geothermal energy is becoming an important source of energy and its importance will be increasing in the future. When we drill geothermal wells, we encounter high temperature zones and may also encounter high pressure areas. Cementing in high temperature environments such as geothermal wells is very challenging. The survey that was sent to High-Pressure-High-Temperature (HPHT) professionals at the HPHT Summit meeting in 2012, showed Cement Design is one of the biggest concerns for HPHT operations and it is one of their technology gaps. Temperatures as high as 200 °C-400 °C could destabilize the setting of the cement. If the well has both high temperature and high pressure, the cementing process becomes much more complex. This article discusses various aspects of cementing procedures and considerations for geothermal wells including cements design considerations, crucial problems, and some technology solutions. Key words: Geothermal energy; HPHT; Geothermal well Salim, P.; & Amani, M. (2013). Principal Points in Cementing Geothermal Wells. Advances in Petroleum Exploration and Development, 5(1), 77-91. Available from: URL: http://www.cscanada. net/index.php/aped/article/view/j.aped.1925543820130501.1145 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/j.aped.1925543820130501.1145 INTRODUCTION World population growth continues to soar. The World Factbook (CIA, 2011) listed annual population growth rate in percent as shown in Figure 1 (Wikipedia, Population Growth Rate).The United States Census Bureau (2012) estimates the world population has currently surpassed 7 billion. Other estimates from the United Nations Population Fund revealed a population of 7 billion was achieved in 2011. Figure 2 shows the world population history in the year 2000 to be less than 6 billion people (Wikipedia, World Population History).It can be concluded from these different sources that special attention is required to sustain the growth of various sectors, such as food supply, environmental integrity, and sufficient energy resources. Some of the energy sources can be extracted from geothermal energy. Worldwide electricity production from it has increased, and direct use could displace millions of barrels of oil. On the other hand, drilling geothermal wells are a very small number comparable with drilling oil and gas well. Just as in the United States (U.S) in the year 2008, 100 geothermal wells were drilled, while for oil andgas,there were more than 50,000 wells drilled (Finger and Blankenship, 2010). Figure 1 Annual Population Growth Rate (2011 Estimate)