Spudding of the Salamander-1 well is now expected to occur in the first half of January 2010.While the extended delays to the commencement of company’s drilling programme are disappointing (now totaling 104 days later than anticipated), Panax Geothermal 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.
Out of a total 28 petroleum wells drilled in the Penola Trough, 11 were deeper than 3,000 meters, averaging 3,240 meters. The average drilling time over these 11 wells to reach total depth (TD) equates to 28.3 days, whilst the deepest well in the Penola Trough (Katnook-4) reached TD of 3,499 meters in 24 days. Salamander-1 is designed to reach a maximum depth of 4,000 meters, but may be pulled short following confirmation of the intersection of high porosity/permeability zones within the target reservoir.
