News

ONGC provides updates on Puga geothermal project, India

ONGC provides updates on Puga geothermal project, India Drilling site, Puga Valley, Ladakh, India (source: ISOR/ Bastien Poux)
Carlo Cariaga 4 Jan 2023

ONGC plans to resume drilling at the Puga Valley geothermal site in India where encouraging results have been achieved after last year's drilling campaign.

A few months ago, we reported on preliminary drilling results in the Puga Valley geothermal project in Ladakh, India. The previous update stated that high-pressure steam at 100 degrees Celsius had already been tapped after a week of drilling. A recent article published in The Hindu Business Line provides more recent news on the status of the project.

The drilling operations had so far reached a depth of at least 40 meters, where water at 130 degrees Celsius was discharged. The well had then been capped in preparation for winter. By April 2023, the equipment and staff needed for drilling will then be deployed again to the site to resume drilling.

Considering the results so far, the project development team is confident of reaching temperatures of 220 degrees Celsius at the target depth of 1000 meters. This will then be followed by a construction of a small-scale, 1-MW geothermal power plant – the first of its kind in India. This will be sufficient to provide the heating and power needs of nearby settlements.

This is in line with the long-term plan of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to drill two wells in Puga and a few more in Chumathang Valley, located around 40 kilometers away. If the results of the pilot-scale project are encouraging, development can advance to a commercial-scale power plant. ONGC is being advised by Iceland Geothermal (ISOR) for this project.

According to Nawang Thinless, a renewable energy expert and coordinator for ONGC, Ladakh has a geothermal potential of about 200 MW. Both Thinless and ONGC General Director Ravi believe that the first pilot project will be completed within the year.

Source: The Hindu Business Line