Empty Wells Drilled as Part of Newberry Geothermal Project Cost $20 million
Daniel Pearson – Cascade Business News – October 6, 2009
After spending about $20 million to drill two exploratory holes looking for geothermal sources of energy west of Paulina Lake outside of the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, officials with Davenport Power say their efforts were a bust and that the company is back at the drawing board before beginning a new round of exploration.
Davenport Power President Doug Perry said the project resulted in the company locating plenty of heat but it didn’t find a way to mine the heat and get it to a power plant to operate a turbine.
“We have a number of acres up there where we’ve drilled exploratory wells,” Perry said “It’s expensive but there is a lot of energy up there. Our plans are now two-fold. The next steps in the exploration process we are preparing for are the completion of geophysical surveys as well as drilling temperature gradient holes. We’ve applied with the Bureau of Land Management to expand the area of operations.”
A recent newsletter released by the company said that “After drilling two deep exploratory wells (10,060 and 11,600 feet respectively), the Newberry Geothermal Project found very high levels of heat in both wells, but little commercially viable resource – neither hot water nor steam … The three pads and two wells the Newberry Project constructed last year remain in place and will continue to be maintained and utilized in exploration activities.”
Exploration at Newberry began back in the 1970s, and the Davenport Newberry Geothermal Project started in 2000, Perry said, but there has yet to be a successful dig, as far as finding a power source with enough energy to turn on the lights at a new power plant. Officials with Davenport believe the potential exists to create a geothermal power plant that can provide electricity to 100,000 homes in Central Oregon.
Back in early 2000, Davenport announced investors with U.S. Renewables Group, which operates in Los Angeles and New York, and Riverstone Holdings, also from New York, would fund the drilling that ceased this year. It was not known at press time if either of these companies plans to sink anymore capital into new wells.
The Newberry Project team started implementation of the next exploration phase on Newberry Geothermal Project\’s BLM-leases. Planned surface geophysical work will collect data to assist in understanding the nature and geology of Newberry Volcano. This geophysical work consists of a series of gravity surveys and magnetotelluric surveys, according to information on Davenport’s website. This surface work will be non-invasive and low-impact in nature, and will occur on geothermal lease holdings along the western flanks of Newberry Volcano. The planned geophysical data gathering is similar to that which was approved by the BLM and U.S. Forest Service in 2006. Work is anticipated to begin in 2010.
“Achieving our goal of utilizing Newberry\’s tremendous geothermal energy potential to produce renewable, clean electricity remains the focus of our efforts,” Perry said. “We remain committed to exploring, developing and operating at Newberry Volcano in a safe manner, as good stewards of the public land and the geothermal resource.”
At the same time, Perry added that no one is a bottomless money pit.
“After a certain amount of time if there is no success, and I don’t know when that point is, we would have to stop,” he said. “The good news is there is a lot of heat up there.”
