Drilling will soon begin on a third exploratory well in the search for geothermal energy.
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| Montserrat Drilling Site on the Flank of the Soufriere Volcano, Bastien Poux, EGS, Inc. |
The Government of Montserrat and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) announced Tuesday that the contract for the drilling of the third exploratory well at St Georges Hill in Montserrat was awarded to the Iceland Drilling Company (IDC).
A contract for £5.1m was signed on Friday 8th April 2016. It is anticipated that IDC will mobilize in July 2016 and drilling to commence in August 2016. Activity on the proposed site has already begun with work starting on site clearance, construction of the drilling pad, fencing, water supply and drainage.
The first two wells drilled on Montserrat are capable of providing approximately 2.4 MW of base load power. The main purpose of the third well is for the reinjection of the waste water from the power generation process.
However, if following drilling and testing, the third well offers more potential as a production well, one of the first two wells will be used for reinjection purposes. The reinjection is preferred to ensure that the geothermal brine water which is separated from the steam will be disposed of, in an environmentally safe manner.