www.panaxgeothermal.com.au
Panax Geothermal is a pure geothermal company with access to some of the worlds most promising geothermal assets. As climate change projections worsen, Panax Geothermal is well positioned to commercialise sustainable sources of base-load energy, powered from the Earth.
The long term vision of Panax is to become a major participant in the geothermal industry, both nationally and internationally. The scope of its geothermal interests will be broad, including both conventional geothermal resources (volcanic related) as well as enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) such as hot fractured rock (HFR) geothermal systems.
Panax Geothermal to drill at Penola shortly
Panax Geothermal Limited (ASX: PAX) has advised the release of the WDI Lightning Rig # 828 from its current drilling activities elsewhere in South Australia is imminent.
Transport of the rig to Panax’s Penola site is expected to commence over the weekend, with the first transported loads expected to arrive at the Salamander-1 drill site by middle to end of next week.
Spudding of the Salamander-1 well is now expected to occur in the first half of January 2010.
Managing director Bertus de Graaf said "while the extended delays to the commencement of our drilling programme are disappointing, Panax says it is well prepared to commence transporting the rig to the Penola site, and all preparations have been completed for spudding the well".
The Salamander-1 well is a production well designed with the aim to convert part of the “Geothermal Resources” of the Penola Project into Geothermal Reserves, which in turn will form the basis for the development of a commercial, grid connected Demonstration Plant, a first for Australia.
It is unlikely that the drilling of the Salamander-1 well will suffer from major delays. Out of a total 28 petroleum wells drilled in the Penola Trough, 11 were deeper than 3,000m, averaging 3,240m.
The average drilling time over these 11 wells to reach total depth equates to 28.3 days, while the deepest well in the Penola Trough (Katnook-4) reached TD of 3,499m in 24 days. Salamander-1 is designed to reach a maximum depth of 4,000m, but may be pulled short following confirmation of the intersection of high porosity/permeability zones within the target reservoir.
