New drilling contract for deep drilling project in Iceland
Drilling Rig Thor of Iceland Drilling (source: Iceland Drilling)
Alexander Richter
26 Apr 2016
Iceland Drilling and HS Orka sign drilling contract for deep drilling project in Iceland, as part of the Iceland Deep Drilling Project on the Reykjanes Peninsula.
In a press release today it was announced today that Icelandic energy company HS Orka and Iceland Drilling have signed a contract for drilling of a 5 km deep, high temperature well at the Reykjanes geothermal field. Iceland Drilling (Jardboranir) biggest drilling rig „Thor“ will be used for the project. The well is intended to be the country’s deepest and hottest geothermal well, with temperatures up to 500°C. Drilling operations are scheduled in the second half of 2016.
HS Orka’s existing 2,5 km well at Reykjanes, well 15, will be deepened to around 5 km. The contract realizes the next step of the Icelandic Deep Drilling Project (IDDP), but earlier drilling into superheated steam was conducted in the Krafla field. The purpose of the project is to demonstrate the possibility of harnessing deep hydrothermal high enthalpy reservoirs in order to augment the current conventional geothermal fields. If the chemistry of the superheated steam can be dealt with, the well will be used directly for power production, potentially increasing the output of the Reykjanes plant. If not, the well may be used as an injection well, increasing the output of the existing shallower production wells. New technology will be introduced for the drilling, testing and harnessing the deep well, in collaboration with domestic and international partners.
HS Orka manages the project in cooperation with Statoil in Norway and the partners inside the IDDP consortium. The IDDP project was recently awarded an over 9 million Euro research grant from the European Union research program “Horizon 2020”. The project is led by HS Orka in cooperation with, Isor, Landsvirkjun, Georg, Statoil and number of European companies.
THE IDDP project has being ongoing the last 15 years. The consortium consists of the Icelandic power companies HS Orka, Landsvirkjun, Orkuveita Reykjavikur together with the National Energy Authority and Statoil.
Source: Company release via Global Newswire
