Adelaide, May 1, 2006 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Addressing the first day today of the "2006 Paydirt SA Resources @ Energy Investment Conference" being held in Adelaide, listed hot rocks specialist, Petratherm Limited (ASX: PTR), said resumption of drilling would commence at its Paralana-1 well within a fortnight.
The first production well for an emerging South Australian geothermal project is likely to be around 3.5 kilometres deep - much shallower than conventional worldwide experiences in using "hot rocks" to generate steam powered electricity.
"Paralana has already proved itself in the first stage drilling to host one of the hottest temperature gradients of any hot rocks target in Australia," Petratherm's Chief Executive Officer, Mr Peter Reid, told the Conference.
"If the second and final third stage drilling of this well deliver the results evident in the first stage, then we are confident of achieving the right temperature system at no deeper than 3.5 klometres, to generate electricity," Mr Reid said.
"The next stage would be to drill a production well to that depth to supply small, local consumers," he said.
"Subsequent development of the field would allow progressive connection to the larger electricity grid infrastructure around Leigh Creek, including that servicing the increasing power demands of the Olympic Dam mine."
Paralana is located in the highly prolific hot rock granites area of Mount Painter, northeast of Port Augusta.
Mr Reid said any successful hot rocks well would need to be able to maintain a temperature gradient at depth in excess of 200 degrees Celsius to be viable - and Paralana - at 8-20 times hotter than areas historically thought to be prospective for hot rock, was already well within these parameters.
"As there are no hydrocarbons in the basin, no special drilling rig is needed to keep drilling deeper, so our test well and eventual production well will continue to be low cost - minimising the risk and cost of developing hot rocks system.
"We will initially establish a small demonstration plant to provide power to local consumers and if that is successful, scale up to 80-120MW."
Contact
MEDIA CONTACT:
Kevin Skinner
Field Public Relations
TEL: +61 414 822 631
| ||
|
