In the upper part of the injection well, the casing has been successfully installed and cemented. In addition, the Blowout Preventer (BOP) has been installed. This BOP is critical during geothermal drilling to ensure the safety of the operation and minimize the risk of a blowout (the release of any gas).
In the past two weeks we have continued to drill and we are now at the top of the warm water reservoir. The current diamond drill will be replaced this week by the core equipment, including the hollow core drill. This is used to obtain cores or samples of rock or sediments in order to collect data about the geothermal source.
Installing the core equipment will require multiple up-and-down operations in the well, with the first descent scheduled for tonight (Aug. 3). The last upward move is scheduled for Saturday morning. After this phase, we expect to need about a month to complete the injection well. This includes installing special pipes and a fiber optic cable.
The diamond drill currently used for drilling.
