Panax Geothermal expecting drilling rig not before end of December 2009
Alexander Richter
2 Dec 2009
Panax Geothermal does not expect the Weatherford Rig # 828 to be released from its current drilling activities, until late December 2009, so won´t be starting to drill until the new year.
According to a release, Australian “Panax Geothermal (ASX: PAX) has advised that based on the earlier announcement today by Petratherm, (ASX: PTR) that it does not expect the WDI Rig # 828 to be released from its current drilling activities, until late December 2009.
This would be some some 120 days or four months later than originally estimated by Petratherm on 30 June 2009.
Based on this, the rig will not be available to commence the spudding of Panax’s Salamander-1 well until the second half of January 2010.
Managing director Bertus de Graaf said today while the extended delays to the commencement of the drill programme were disappointing, Panax is well prepared for the commencement of transporting the rig to the Penola site for spudding of the well.
Drill operator has advised that the drilling rig is continuing to operate to specification and that no mechanical or associated issues have been encountered.
He noted to Panax shareholders that it was unlikely that the drilling of the Salamander-1 well will suffer from major delays.
Out of a total 28 petroleum wells drilled in the Penola Trough, 11 were deeper than 3,000m, averaging 3,240m. The average drilling time over these 11 wells to reach total depth equates to 28.3 days – while the deepest well in the Penola Trough (Katnook-4) reached TD of 3,499m in 24 days.
Salamander-1 is designed to reach a maximum depth of 4,000m, but may be pulled short following confirmation of the intersection of high porosity/permeability zones within the target reservoir.”
Source: Company release via Proactive Investors
