Ram Power announces successful drilling results at its San Jacinto and Orita projects

Drilling Rig at Orita Well #3, California (source: Ram Power)

Alexander Richter 26 Apr 2011

In a release by the company, “Ram Power, Corp. (TSX: RPG) announces the successful drilling completion and testing results of well SJ12-2 at its San Jacinto-Tizate project site near Leon, Nicaragua and at the Orita No. 4 well at its Orita project in Imperial Valley, California.

SJ 12-2

The Company completed the initial drilling of well SJ 12-2 in January 2011. Initial flow test results confirmed that well SJ12-2 will be a production well with an estimated capacity of about 4 MW gross. In order to maximize the potential production from this well, the Company commenced a fork of well SJ12-2 in March 2011 while retaining this initial productive leg of the well. Drilling of the SJ12-2 fork was successfully completed on April 17, 2011 to a depth of 7,248 feet and a 9 5/8 inch slotted liner was set to the total drilled depth. Total lost circulation of drilling fluid was encountered in the well and subsequent injection testing shows excellent permeability with an injectivity index of 30 tonne/hr/bar. This suggests a MW potential of 5-10 MW gross for the newly completed fork leg of the well. The whip-stock used in drilling the second leg has been successfully recovered from the well and currently the well is heating with expected certification in mid-May 2011 of the full MW potential of both legs of the well.

The San Jacinto-Tizate exploration drilling program is focused on developing the geothermal resources needed for the phased power plant expansion designed to increase production from the current 10 MW net electrical output to 72 MW net electrical output. Currently, the Company has achieved certification of 59 MW gross resource capacity in San Jacinto-Tizate. With the previously announced successful re-drill of well SJ 12-1 sidetrack 1, the initial flow test results for well SJ 12-2, and the planned acid wash of well SJ 9-3 (currently certified at 5.3MW gross) the Company anticipates wells SJ 12-1 and SJ 12-2, together with the incremental production from well SJ 9-3 after the acid wash, may result in an increase of 16 MW to 25MW in the gross certified resource capacity of the steamfield to a new total gross certified resource capacity of 75 MW to 84 MW.

Orita No. 4 Well

The Orita No. 4 well was drilled to a depth of 14,325 feet and initial flow testing shows fluid entries at 10,100 feet and 11,500 feet with 555°F measured at 12,430 feet under flowing conditions. A small bridge was encountered at 12,430 feet and a slotted liner was successfully run in the well to protect the current open hole completion from a depth of 9,202 feet to total depth. Current initial production testing only on the depth up to the encountered bridge indicates 300 kph of total mass flow which yields 70 kph of steam at commercial pressures for a steam plant. Sustained wellhead pressure is 125 psig. Additional testing which includes an extended flow test and injection to the Orita No. 2 well is planned to be conducted in May 2011. Typically wells with a flowing temperature and flow rate as measured at the Orita No. 4 well are considered viable for commercial power generation. Based on the initial flow testing on the section of the well up to the encountered bridge, management estimates the capacity of the well to be approximately 4 MW. In addition, given the 555°F temperature projected for the completed drilled depth of the well of 14,325 feet, any flow contribution found in this lower interval from 12,430 feet to 14,325 feet that is yet to be tested will be of high enthalpy and contributions of flow, even if small, will contribute additional enthalpy to the flow stream under these conditions. During the operations to clean the bridges from the untested section, the well showed enhanced permeability and the inability to regain full circulation of fluids. Given prior history of completed wells in the high temperature portions of the Imperial Valley, the well characteristics of this untested section are similar to excellent producing wells.

After completion of long term flow testing of the Orita No. 4 well and the Orita No. 2 well and further evaluation of the chemistry of the wells, the Company will determine the future resource development plan for the project.

Walt Higgins, Interim President and CEO of Ram Power, stated, “We are pleased with the drilling results at both our San Jacinto and Orita projects from our revised drilling program.”