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 achieves first steam from Salamander-1 Well
Panax Geothermal (ASX:PAX) has advised that the scheduled short clean-up flow test has been successfully completed. The test was conducted at variable flow rates, with downhole instruments used for logging pressure, temperature and flow.
The short flow reservoir test on 31 March achieved the first steam from a hot sedimentary aquifer in Australia.
A significant amount of steam was released after production flows to surface reached boiling point temperatures (100°C).
A bottom hole temperature of 156°C was recorded at 4,015m, with approximately 130°C being recorded at 3,000m (being the top of the approximately 1,000m thick target reservoir), which are both in line with earlier estimates.
The BHT is expected to increase further as the temperatures in the well have not yet fully recovered from the cooling action of the recently completed drilling.
The data collected during the short clean-up flow test will now be evaluated and interpreted in combination with the well log data (petrophysical logs) collected following completion of drilling in mid-March. According to plan, an extended flow test is scheduled to be carried out in mid-May, 2010.
Both tests were designed by SKM (New Zealand) and endorsed by GeothermEx (USA), to collect the necessary data required for the establishment of “geothermal reserves”.
At this stage, the company said, it is too early to draw any conclusions as to the quality of the reservoir but completion of the scheduled short flow test brings the Penola Project one further step closer to the establishment of Australia’s first geothermal reserves.
