The study explores the value extraction through the fracture geometry calibration component of end-to-end lifecycle simulations for the 16A(78)-32 and 16B(78)-32 injector-producer pair at the Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE). Forward modeling was conducted with rigorous geomechanical, fracture propagation models calibrated with micro earthquake (MEQ), production logging, and strain data during fracturing and circulation.

The 3D geomechanical model was built from the structural geologic features and the thermal and mechanical properties profiles. In the first step of calibration, elastic properties were calculated from openhole logs and empirical core test data. A high-fidelity discrete fracture network (DFN) was used as an input in the 3D geo-model. The DFN was built based on data sets collected from five wells, microseismic monitoring during a 2022 stimulation campaign to constrain fracture orientations and intensity, and fracture characterization in well 16B(78)-32. The simulations were conducted in a 3D nonhomogenous mode with stress shadowing and fracture interactions. Next calibration was conducted using the MEQ data acquired in the stage 3 stimulation of well 16A(78)- 32 in April 2022. The stress model, leakoff, DFN, stress anisotropy, fracture toughness were calibrated. Forward modeling was then conducted for phase2 stimulation in April 2024 with the calibrated properties. Connection efficiency of the doublet was also inferred from the modeling results. All the modeling results including fracture hits and connection efficiency were validated with the newly acquired MEQ, strain evolution, thermal strain datasets.