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.
New spud date for Panax Geothermal Salamander-1 well
Panax Geothermal (ASX: PAX) has been advised that the estimated arrival time for the Le Tourneau Lightning Rig # 828, to be used to drill the Salamander-1 well in the Penola Geothermal Project has been delayed an additional ten days.
Estimated new spud date for Salamander-1 well is towards the middle of December 2009, some 80 days later than originally anticipated.
The drill rig is now estimated to be released from its current location on or about 17 November 2009, however sufficient time needs to be allowed to transport the rig from its current location.
Significant delays at the current drilling site where the rig is located have occurred. Panax was advised that the cause of the latest delay is due to “unexpected geological problems that require time to be investigated”.
The company said it is in readiness for the commencement of 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 geological resources of the Penola Project into Geothermal Reserves.
This will form the basis for the development of a commercial, grid connected Demonstration Plant, a first for Australia.
In a statement managing director of Panax Bertus de Graaf has sought to allay concerns of shareholders, indicating "that it is unlikely that the drilling of the Salamander-1 well will suffer from major delays."
He said 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*) (“TD”) equates to 28.3 days.
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.
