ThermaPrime completes drilling of 15 geothermal wells

By Alena Mae S. Flores – August 23, 2023, 6:55 pm
from manilastandard.net

ThermaPrime Drilling Corp. said Wednesday it completed its 15-well drilling program for the Philippine Geothermal Production Co. Inc., one of the major geothermal developers in the Philippines.

ThermaPrime, a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Balfour Inc., is a construction and engineering company with more than 40 years of experience in infrastructure development owned by the Lopez Group.

The company drilled a total of 12 production wells and three multilateral injection wells and carried out 10 work-over jobs over a period of four years.

It said the whole campaign produced more than 100 megawatts of additional steam production for PGPC from its geothermal steam fields in Laguna, Batangas and Tiwi, Albay.

ThermaPrime said one of the drilled wells in the Makiling-Banahaw area is by far the country’s deepest for “large hole” with a depth of 11,849 feet. It also holds a speed record for geothermal drilling having been completed in under a month.

PGPC, a pioneering developer of geothermal energy in Southeast Asia, is looking to progress its other geothermal concessions and increase its renewable energy output to about 600 MW in line with the thrust of the government to pursue green and sustainable energy development.

SM Investments Corp., through wholly-owned PGCP, announced investments of about P3 billion annually to increase its geothermal steam production capacity by 300 MW.

This will come from the exploration of new steam production projects in Northern Luzon—Kalinga, Daklan and Cagayan; and in Southern Luzon—Mount Labo and Malinao, which will increase its geothermal capacity to 600 MW.

PGPC advocates for indigenous geothermal energy as an important component in the country’s overall energy development plan, being the only baseload renewable energy source that is available 24/7.