(Source: Datamonitor)
Ram Power, Corp. has announced the re-drill and initial evaluation of production well SJ12-I, and the flow test results of production well SJ12-II at San Jacinto-Tizate.
To achieve production in wells SJ 12-I and SJ 12-II, the company had decided to re-drill both wells. The re-drills were expected to correct the problems encountered in the original drilling and reach the originally planned intersection of deep production zones.
The company completed the initial drilling of SJ 12-II in January, 2011. The well was drilled to a depth of 7,532ft. at which point a drill rig power failure resulted in the drill string becoming stuck in the well. At that time the well was experiencing a total loss of circulation of drilling fluids which provided an indication of high permeability. After several attempts to free and retrieve the drill string, the drill string was severed at a depth of 7,228ft.
After four days of initial flow testing, despite having 276ft. of stuck drilling apparatus at the bottom, the well produced separated steam at a rate of 31t/hr at design pressures for the turbine inlet with production from a down hole zone that exceeded 510°F. These initial results confirmed that well SJ12-II will be a production well with an estimated capacity of about 4MW. In order to maximize the potential production from this well, the company plans to fork SJ12-II while retaining this initial productive leg of the well.
The San Jacinto-Tizate exploration drilling program is focused on developing the geothermal resources needed for the phased power plant expansion designed to increase production from the current 10MW to 72MW. Currently, the company has 60MW of certified resource in San Jacinto-Tizate. With the re-drill of SJ 12-I ST1, the flow test results and subsequent fork of SJ 12-II, and the planned acid wash of well SJ 9-III the company anticipates these three wells will increase the certified resource capacity by 12 to 25MW.
Greg Ussher, geophysicist, manager generation clients at SKM, stated that, "Our team is very pleased to again be working with the Ram Power team on the San Jacinto geothermal project. It is encouraging to have early indications of success with both SJ12-I ST1 and SJ12-II, which gives us confidence for the on-going production and reinjection drilling program."
A service of YellowBrix, Inc.