Ferguson to launch SA hot rocks project Friday, 7 August...

Ferguson to launch SA hot rocks project
Friday, 7 August 2009

FEDERAL Resources Minister Martin Ferguson will today officially launch Petratherm’s flagship Paralana joint venture project in South Australia.

“Today’s launch is a major milestone for the project and keeps us on track to deliver Australia’s first commercial geothermal energy supply by 2011,” Petratherm managing director Terry Kallis said.

The Paralana JV project, which includes Beach Petroleum and TRUenergy, covers more than 1000 square kilometres of “hot rock” energy potential adjacent to the Mt Painter region in South Australia’s northern Flinders Ranges, about 40 kilometres east of Arkaroola.

In late June, Petratherm had started drilling the Paralana-2 deep well with a custom-made Weatherford drilling rig.

The well will be drilled to a depth of about 4km as a deep injection well that, together with a second well, will establish by early 2010 an underground heat exchanger capable of carrying super-heated water between them.

“Paralana is a further investment by Beach in the development of a diversified energy base in northeastern SA for now and the future,” Beach managing director Reg Nelson said.

“Importantly, this geothermal project is located relatively close to a local market and targets rocks of the Arrowie Basin (older than the Cooper Basin) that are believed to have been heated by more deeply buried rocks.”

TRUenergy managing director Richard McIndoe said the Paralana project had the potential to provide clean renewable power to more than 120,000 homes and could make the joint venture leaders in deploying next-generation geothermal energy to new markets overseas.

Beach and TRUenergy are contributing $10 million and $6 million respectively, plus their equity share of project costs towards drilling and stimulating the two wells, and the water circulation tests.