Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil said on Monday it has started to drill world's hottest geothermal well on Iceland to explore if high temperature water can be extracted from deep reservoirs for power production.
Statoil and its partners in The Iceland Deep Drilling Project has just started the drilling that involves deepening of an existing geothermal well down to 5 km depth at the Reykjanes site operated by HS Orka, the Norwegian company said in a statement.
At this depth, superheated steam can be brought to the surface at 400-500 degrees Celsius and used for efficient electricity production in steam turbines, it said, adding that the concept of the research well at Reykjanes is to explore the opportunity to extract renewable energy by drilling wells into reservoirs with high-temperature water heated by the earth's magma.
"Geothermal energy is a renewable resource where we see a potential for leveraging on several of our core competencies from oil and gas such as subsurface, drilling and well and HSE (health, safety and the environment)," Elisabeth B. Kvalheim, Statoil's chief technology officer, was quoted as saying.
The drilling operation is expected to be completed by the end of 2016 at which point the project will enter into a two-and-a-half-year test period, where the objective is to confirm reservoir performance, well integrity and power production potential.
In a long term perspective, geothermal energy could be a renewable energy source with potential, thus Statoil has research ongoing to test the technological and economic viability of this resource. The geothermal research well on Iceland is an important part of this work.
"Put it more simply you can compare it to the Earth's radiator system, and geothermal energy is a global resource," said Hanne Wigum, head of renewable research technology in Statoil.
"Iceland is a world leader in electricity production from geothermal energy and working close together with our partners is of great value to Statoil. Further research will be determined after this project," she said.
