Boreholes indicate high geothermal resource potential in northern Singapore

Singapore, Marina Bay (source: flickr/ shayanlinux, creative commons)

Carlo Cariaga 4 Jul 2025

A slimhole drilled to a depth of 1.76 kilometers in the Sembawang site in norther Singapore indicate a subsurface temperature of up to 122 °C, indicating a strong geothermal resource potential. The results of the second borehole, drilled in February 2024, are significantly higher than the first borehole that was drilled in 2023. The first slimhole was drilled in Admiralty to a depth of 1.12 kilometers, with a measured temperature of 70 °C, as reported previously.

The results of the exploration drilling campaign were shared in a recent public symposium organized the joint research team of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Technical University of Munich at the Singapore Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (TUMCREATE).

The joint research team is led by Professor Alessandro Romagnoli  from the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) and Dr Tobias Massier from TUMCREATE.

The temperature profiles of the Admiralty and Sembawang wells indicate a thermal gradient between 40 – 44 °C/km, about twice the global average. If this gradient remains unchanged at deeper regions, the rock temperature could reach 230 °C at a depth of 5000 meters. This is highly favorable for geothermal power generation and direct heat applications.

“The results mean that we have strong potential for electricity generation and district cooling using commercially available technologies in the geothermal energy sector. The unique combination of elevated heat gradients and high heat-producing granites offers us compelling reasons to pursue further mapping of the northern subsurface,” said Prof. Romagnoli.

Source: Nanyang Technological University and Romagnoli et al, 2025