US Geothermal with update on Neal Hot Springs and San Emidio

Drilling rig at Neal Hot Springs, Oregon (source: US Geothermal)

Alexander Richter 10 Dec 2010

U.S. Geothermal Inc. (TSX:GTH) provides an update on its Neal Hot Springs project located in eastern Oregon and its San Emidio project located in northwestern Nevada. Both projects are fully funded and currently under construction. Upon completion of these two projects, U.S. Geothermal will have three operating projects with a total of 62 megawatts (“MW”) gross installed generation capacity, resulting in 45 MW of net generation capacity.

At Neal Hot Springs, a 30 day reservoir flow test was initiated on November 16th under the supervision of GeothermEx Inc. The reservoir test involves two production wells flowing continuously at an average rate of 1,000 gallons per minute from each well. At the same time, large pumps are being employed to move the geothermal fluid through temporary pipelines and inject it into two injection wells.

After the 30 day flow period, the production wells will be shut in and the reservoir pressure will be allowed to recover for 30 days. Measurement of pressure, temperature and flow rate is recorded and retrieved at regular intervals over the duration of the test.

Preliminary analysis by an independent reservoir engineer of the data retrieved to date indicates that the reservoir response is consistent with and falls within the range of expected parameters established by earlier reservoir analysis. Therefore, the company believes that the Neal Hot Springs resource is poised to achieve the production expectations established by management.

At San Emidio, the construction of the new 11.5 MW (gross) power plant continues under a turnkey contract with Benham Constructors LLC (“Benham”), a wholly owned subsidiary of SAIC. The modular binary cycle plant is being assembled by TAS Energy (“TAS”) of Houston, TX. To date, TAS has completed approximately 80% of the engineering design and has ordered the turbine.

Benham has completed approximately 60% of the engineering for balance of plant items and has crews on site installing a 5.3 mile long fresh water line for the cooling tower. Delivery of the modular plant is expected by late August 2011 with substantial completion planned by late October. The water cooled plant is expected to generate over 9.6 MW (net) during its first year of operation and to produce an average of 8.6 MW (net) over the life of the project.”

Source:  Company release via PR-USA