WorldWide Drilling Resource

51 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® FEBRUARY 2017 The Search for the World’s Hoest Hole Compiled by the Editorial Staff of WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Where on earth would you imagine the hottest hole to be located? Iceland probably wouldn’t come to mind just based on the name itself; however, the Iceland Deep Drilling Project’s rig is currently drilling into an old lava flow at Reykjanes, with the hope of producing the hottest geothermal well in the world. The temperatures would range between 750-1800ºF (400-1000ºC), and experts believe it could lead to a revolution in the energy efficiency of high-temperature geothermal areas worldwide. The project’s main goal is to find out if it’s feasible to extract energy and chemicals out of the hydrothermal systems at supercritical conditions. In 2009, the most powerful geothermal well on record resulted from the team accidentally discovering a magma reservoir after drilling a little more than a mile below the surface in Krafla, northeast Iceland. Their sensors indicated a temperature of about 1800ºF (1000ºC) caused by super-hot vents of steam. Now the team is drilling a second well, but this time at the Reykjanes site with the plan of producing results on a larger scale. How large? A single well powers 5000 homes, but the team is looking to harness enough power for 50,000 homes. To achieve this, the drilling will crack into a landward extension of the Mid Atlantic Ridge, where at the appropriate depth, magma driven by volcanic activity and moving from below will meet and heat seawater below the ocean bed. Energy companies and researchers behind the project think the water will be in the form of “supercritical steam”, which would be neither liquid nor gas. This supercritical steam would hold much more heat energy, and a well which taps into this steam and brings it to the surface for use by a steam turbine could generate the power needed for 50,000 homes. Since drilling began, it has progressed slowly but steadily. Valuable rock samples were found as more spot cores were drilled. Once the drill made it to a depth of 10,500 feet, they were unable to get any return of circulation fluid or drill cuttings. It only takes once to drill into a supercritical steam zone, so the team remains hopeful. If the techniques being used in Iceland prove to be successful, it would open up potential sites for supercritical geothermal resources around the globe since young volcanoes occur worldwide. The geothermal well in Iceland is important not only to Iceland as a world leader in electricity production from geothermal energy, but also to the worldwide economic viability of the renewable energy source. Editor’s Note: In between our print issues, the WWDR Team prepares an electronic newsletter called E -News Flash . Based on readership, this was the most popular E-News Flash article of the month. Get in on the action and subscribe today at: www.worldwidedrillingresource.com View from the Reykjanes shore, courtesy of Statoil. Serving the Drilling Industry www.starironworks.com 257 Caroline Street Punxsutawney, PA 15767 800-927-0560 • 814-427-2555 Fax: 814-427-5164 Need something special? Talk to us - we’ll make it happen faster than you think.