geothermal drilling

Like most other people here, PAX has also cost me a lot of money. I am not happy. I am very disappointed with the geothermal companies generally. This post is just my opinion. I dont want to enter into deep discussions, people can take from it what they want or not.
PAX, GDY and PTR have all had boosts from the Government with grants and also setbacks with climate change policies, but importantly they have done little to help themselves with the way they have managed their wells (largely unsuccessfully).
GDY - What can anyone say! I bought in on Hab2 and went for a wild ride over the next few years buying in when their ASX announcements showed them moving forward and selling out as they announced another disaster. I eventually sold out completely after the "blow out" at a substantial loss. Amongst other things, H2S/CO2 contamination should have been picked up from the first couple of wells sure GDY have major technical difficulties to overcome, but these are no greater than in the oilfield (the oilfield has for decades been drilling and producing from deeper, hotter, more H2S/CO2 and higher pressured wells).
PTR - Fortunately I sold out as soon as they started having hole problems, with no financial loss.
PAX - I have lost a fairly hefty amount with these good folks. I first had a bad feeling when they had problems with the surface casing string (2/3/10 announcement) and very nearly sold out. In my opinion they were probably blasting their way down and possibly heading into the same scenario that I think PTR got themselves into (ie: I suspect PTR had a badly washed out hole probably due to excessive pump rates which became increasingly difficult to clear drilled cuttings from, which then needed more pump creating a vicious cycle causing hole cleaning problems and probable formation damage. In the end of course its a mute point, because they couldnt get production casing to bottom). Anyway back to PAX I didnt sell (to my regret), hoping they would carefully drill the production hole. However when I saw the announcement of 18/5/10, it appeared likely that they had massive formation damage and mentioned an acid job to remove Calcium Carbonate used in the drilling mud I was stunned. The Pretty Hills formation is a prolific sandstone reservoir exhibiting good permeability and porosity. CaCO3 can be put into a mud system to prevent mud/seepage losses and is more suited to limestone reservoirs and/or where there is a pre-conceived plan to do acid work later on. Deep consideration is needed before using it. CaCO3 as a filtration agent will very effectively block off the pore spaces for drilling purposes, but for production purposes can severely reduce permeability/ transmissivity and the only way to remove it (and not necessarily all that successfully either) is with expensive acid treatments. In my humble opinion it had absolutely no place in the mud system in this well. As I say I was stunned so I sold out for 10 cents. The bad news was I lost a lot of money the good news was I could have lost more with the price now languishing at 3 or 4 cents.
I am a firm believer that HSA and HFR will work one day. I have just lost faith in the current crop of companys ability to operate their wells. I still maintain an exposure to the sector, but in a more conservative way now via Origin for GDYs acreage and BPT for Paralanas, PAX of course dont have anyone and I would be most surprised to see a farminee.
If these companies (accepting of course, that GDY do have additional technical difficulties) just spent more time keeping their drilling programs simple by drilling with clean simple compatible mud systems near balance to formation pressure and keeping the wretched mud pumps to a minimum to achieve simple useable wells, they could have done themselves and shareholders a powerful service. Drilling is not rocket science. Fancy engineering /hydraulics/ mud systems/ high pump rates should only be entertained well into the production phase after drilling several wells when you have a good knowledge of the field (NOT at the exploration stage). Its like driving from Perth to Alice via the outback - you use a Toyota Land cruiser, but Perth to Adelaide via the freeway you can use the Ferrari, not vice versa. There is a world of difference between exploration drilling and development/production drilling and people just dont get it.
I still hold some PAXO (out of the money)