Third well successfully drilled at Balmatt geothermal project in Antwerp Province, Belgium
Alexander Richter
7 Aug 2018
Drilling of the third well for the Balmatt geothermal project in the Flemish region of Antwerp in Belgium has successfully been completed. Tests are now planned for the project that is developing a geothermal heating plant.
As reported this morning, drilling firm Smet-Daldrup (a joint venture between Belgian Smet Group and the German company Daldrup & Söhne AG), has successfully completed the drilling of the third well at the Balmatt site in Mol-Donk in the province of Antwerp in the Flemish region of Belgium. The well has a length of 4,905 meters and is drilled to a vertical depth of 4,235 meters. A large part was drilled at an angle of 45 °.
The drilling started on 10 October 2017 and lasted a total of ten months. Smet-Daldrup finished the fourth and last section in less than a month’s time. That section has pierced the entire coal-lime layer and at the bottom also drilled a 150 m layer of sandstone with a probable age of 360 to 370 million years, the end of the Devonian era. This sandstone layer was never drilled in the eastern Kempen and is only known from drilling in Loenhout and Booischot, where it is much less deep, at 1,500 m and 700 to 800 m respectively.
The drilling rig will now move to another drilling site, while the experts from the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (Vito) further analyze the results of well tests. They compare the results of the third well with those of the first two wells and with known geological parameters. The main activities at the Balmatt site also focus on the commissioning of the geothermal energy plant for the heating provision of the Belgian Nuclear Research Center, Belgoprocess and the Vito itself from next winter. The start-up is scheduled for the month of October.
Details on the project can be find on its Facebook page, here.
Source: FluxEnergie
