Petratherm calls it quits – the slow death of Australia’s geothermal sector
One of the key players of Australia’s once hopeful geothermal sector calls it quits, as it is being taken over by a technology company in a backdoor listing takeover.
As reported this morning, the hopes of a revival for the Australian geothermal sector are being crashed. The news of the end of Petratherm, one of the key geothermal players throughout a period, when companies like Greenearth Energy, Green Rock, Geodynamics, KuthEnergy and others were creating an Australian geothermal energy industry, are clearly highlighting the fact that the dream of large scale geothermal development in Australia are over.
This comes as a technology company plans to take over Petratherm, having struck a deal with Petratherm to “backdoor list” into the company.
Over the years we have been reporting on Australia’s geothermal companies, which one by one either closed down, were taken over or simply changed their focus.
Greenearth Energy changed its focus to energy efficiency technology, Green Rock Energy changed its focus to mining and is now called Black Rock Mining. Panax Geothermal became Raya Group and is still working on projects, but only in Indonesia.
KuThEnergy was taken over by Geodynamics. Geodynamics has abandoned its Australian geothermal projects, but announces a standstill of its geothermal projects in the Pacific region. So it seems like the geothermal sector in Australia essentially ceased to exist.
There are though small elements of hope, with the expected expansion of the only geothermal plant in Australia at Birdsville, and several heating and cooling projects
Victorian human resources technology company MSGooroo is taking over and will rename Petratherm to Gooroo Ventuers. The current Executive Director, Terry Kellis, who lead Petratherm through the years, will leave the company. Petratherm listed in 2004 and had big plans to develop engineered geothermal systems (EGS) projects in Australia, having drilled one shallow and one deep well at its Paralana project 600 km north of Adelaide. Following successful flow testing, the company was not able to progress the project beyond that point.
Source: Adelaide Now