It was failure with this stage of the casing with HAB3 that led...

It was failure with this stage of the casing with HAB3 that led to it blowing up. Failure in concreting rather than embrittlement let to the failure. I remember being annoyed reading this as we had (unnecessarily) paid for higher quality casing to resist hydrogen embrittlement for HAB4. But I was also relieved, as the other existing wells were more likely to be sound. It will save considerable time and money if HAB1 is sound.

pp 12 Annual Report 2010-2011
The latest findings through ongoing investigation have shown that the original hypothesis of failure due to low temperature hydrogen embrittlement caused by the geothermal brine is unlikey. Furthermore, the investigation concludes that the combination of highly caustic fluids on outside annulus of the casing combined with high temperatures during production testing caused a condition of caustic (stress) corrosion cracking. The highly caustic fluids were remnant in an annulus between the production and intermediate casings due to difficulties encountered while mixing the slurry for cementation.



HAB4 has been drilled so smoothly it is a joy to see, especially compared to the horror that was HAB2. But there is so much more that needs to be done than drill the well and that is what GDY is not talking about. GDY have to greatly increase flow rates and efficiencies while cutting drilling costs. There is so much more experimentation required with fracture design and turbine design. Let alone addressing precipitates and working with the high pressure and heaven knows what else. The elephant in the room however is, what is Origin’s gripe?

If someone wanted a short-term punt, it may be that the share price will spike after circulation testing, and the power station is connected and those ‘cold beers from hot rocks’ start flowing. But GDY is not economic. There is a long way to go yet. I sold out of GDY six months ago after holding from day one; losing a lot of money, but I still have hopes they’ll make it work. They really need to be upfront on the challenges. I got out largely because of the unexplained delays of months and years on milestones.