re: insider * ptr * petratherm
Ferret's Stock to Watch: PETRATHERM LIMITED 09:51, Thursday, 5 May 2005
A COMPANY WINS SUPPORT FOR SECOND HOT ROCKS WELL IN SA
Sydney - Thursday - May 5: (RWE Australian Business News )
OVERVIEW ********
Here is another hot rocks company that is helping to pioneer a new source of energy.
It's pretty exciting stuff with Australia in the global forefront of tapping into hot fractured rocks to produce an almost limitless flow of steam which is subsequently turned into power megawatts, displacing oil and gas.
The company is drilling in the SA outback to make electricity from hot rocks deep beneath the Earth's surface.
Below the basin lies a huge outcrop of superheated granite that reaches temperatures close to 300 degrees Celsius.
Petratherm has just won a special PACE (Plan For Accelerating Exploration) funding award of $140,000 from the South Australian Government for drilling of its geothermal evaluation well at Callabonna.
Drilling of the Callabonna target will begin in about four weeks time.
The well, to be called Yerila-1, is named after the granite which outcrops just 40 kilometres southwest of the drilling site and is one of the highest heat-producing granites known (over 20 times more than normal granites).
Yerila-1, to be drilled to approximately 1 kilometre depth, will pass through the artesian aquifer modelled at 620 metres, and then penetrate into the interpreted Cooper Basin equivalent strata below.
Data collected from the well will enable calculation of inherent stress characteristics and a temperature gradient profile, as part of the hot rock evaluation process.
On completion of the Callabonna program the rig will be moved to the Paralana-1 (GEL178) site to complete the Paralana geothermal evaluation well to 600m.
Paralana-1 was spudded in mid January but encountered unstable hole conditions and was halted at 306 metres.
The larger capacity rig commissioned for Yerila-1 is rated to 2,000 metres, and able to drill with a weighted mud system, overcoming hole instabilities found at Paralana-1.
Temperature gradient data gathered from the geothermal evaluation wells at Callabonna and Paralana will determine if there are significant geothermal resources at these sites.
SHARE PRICE MOVEMENTS *********************
Shares of Petratherm yesterday crept up 1.5c to 32c. Rolling high for the year has been 46c and low 21.5c.
ONGOING DRILLING PLANS **********************
At Paralana-1, shallow temperature logging of the upper cased portion of the hole above 127m recorded a bottom hole temperature of 340 degrees, which is consistent with the modelled high geothermal gradient and the recorded higher regional temperatures.
A larger capacity rig with the capacity to overcome the drilling problems has been contracted to complete the hole to the original target depth of 500-600m.
Callabonna Hot Rock Target (GEL 157), 70 kilometres north of Paralana, has been moved forward in the drilling schedule and will now be drilled immediately prior the completion of Paralana-1.
Petratherm's modelled target depth for a significant economic, geothermal resource is 3.5 kilometres.
The initial two-step evaluation drilling program will identify and quantify any potential resource, prior to the commitment of higher cost, deep drilling into the thermal resource, to determine if there is a significant geothermal resource at depth.
ONGOING GENERATIVE RESEARCH ***************************
Ongoing generative research is underway to identify potential new geothermal areas within Australia.
Enacting of geothermal licensing legislation in Queensland has been delayed several months, and it is now expected to be at least June before applications can be made.
The company is considering the merits of several areas, with a view to the possible application for licences.
BACKGROUND **********
Petratherm was established on October 24, 2003 to explore the tapping of high-temperature "hot fractured rocks" to produce steam for power generation.
It obtained tenements suitable for the production of economically viable hot rock energy, together with methodology and research data to assess the potential of such tenements.
To date, three tenements have been obtained which are characterised by potential occurrence of substantial rock masses with naturally occurring radiogenic minerals.
They are in proximity to major infrastructures.
Depth to top of target rock should be in the three kilometre range.
Petratherm believes that the requirement for power from renewable energy sources will increase, and that hot rock energy is one of the few forms of renewable energy that can provide base-load power without significant impact on the environment.
ENDS
FPA Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held