Much has been said about heat qualities of differing geothermal gradients versus depth and the cost to bring a project into production. One thing I have been chasing down with engineers is , oddly, pumps. What has been concerning me is the engineering that geothermal producers will need to pump their water back down an injection well.
I have spoken to engineers in the oil and gas business as well as technical and commercial people within the geothermal industry. The pumps people will use for down hole pumping only have a tolerance of 190C. More than that they don't work as the technology isn't yet available to pump higher temperatures. Importantly at the surface the water is at approx 4000psi.
It is often stated in this industry that "Heat is King". The reality is that heat is very very important but too much heat represents an as yet unsolved problem.
There is no point in having 220C overpressured water if you can't pump it back down the hole. The answer will be to reduce the temperature and the hardest trick will be to do that without losing pressure. If you lose pressure you have to put it back in again. That means using energy, which means production Megawatts per well will be reduced which means economics are affected..
GRK shouldn't have this problem. They aren't after the hottest rocks on the planet, they are after hot rocks close to market. Close to market is the point people should remember. It means everything. Water supply comes from Olympic Dam.
GRK will be ok even with this awful bear equity market. Yes they will get a JV partner in at some time, yes they will drill a couple of wells (by the way there are 2 new rigs coming into South Aust in the next 6 months anyway), yes at some point they will get government grants and most likely they will end up with some sort of relationship with BHP IMHO.
It is an awful market but in time we will be well rewarded.
cheers omg
GRK Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
