Geothermal energy co. GA Drilling eyes U.S., European projects after funding from Nabors, others

Another Houston-based geothermal energy company has closed funding in the first months of 2024, and it’s tapping into increased oil and gas interest in the cleaner technology.

GA Drilling, which moved to the Bayou City last year after being founded in Slovakia, closed $15 million in funding earlier in April. Investors include Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE: NBR), a drilling giant with its principal offices in Houston, as well as Alfa8, Underground Ventures and Neulogy Ventures.

Igor Kocis, CEO and co-founder of GA Drilling, told the Houston Business Journal in an interview that the company will seek to close additional funding this year.

“This year we are planning and signing contracts for the pilot projects; we are now going through many tests of the system that was successfully demonstrated last year in Houston,” Kocis said. “The U.S. and Europe are our two primary markets, but we’re going to do the global revolution because to mitigate climate change it’s not enough to do the job locally.”

GA Drilling’s roadmap estimates large-scale projects could begin to take shape in Europe and the U.S. by 2026 at the earliest. European projects, which tend to focus on geothermal heating, would likely take precedence over U.S. projects, which convert steam produced from subterranean heat into electricity.

The company develops drilling platforms and products intended to lower the costs of deep drilling to reach the high temperatures needed to produce geothermal energy. Among those offerings is Plasmabit, which features a plasma drilling head that GA Drilling claims keeps costs linear instead of exponential.

In addition to being a clean option for power and heating, Kocis said geothermal is a unique business opportunity for Houston companies. GA Drilling relocated to take advantage of the proximity to suppliers for its technology, and Kocis said there are still ways for local companies to innovate in the areas of well completion and supply for geothermal energy.

One big shift Kocis has seen during GA Drilling’s growth is oil and gas companies' interest in the technology, and he’s confident that their investment is not just a fad. Advancement of technology that allows projects to drill deeper is one key to unlocking geothermal’s potential.

“In this industry, we have frontrunners, with ambitions, and followers, who wait to see if this is a real opportunity or a niche market,” Kocis said. “What we are bringing is the missing piece of the puzzle. Current developers have the people who understand what needs to be done but are missing the technology and systems to make the ambitions real.”

At CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston, Chevron Corp. (Nasdaq: CVX) unveiled some of its own geothermal focus. CEO Mike Wirth said the company is working on unconventional pilot plants in California and Japan, and the energy major landed a grant from the Department of Energy to facilitate the one in California.

Kocis highlighted Houston as a geothermal hub, and other companies that have received funding back his argument. Last month, Fervo Energy, which has already broken ground on a project in Utah, closed $244 million in a round led by Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN). That funding was the largest venture deal in Texas in the first quarter of 2024.

Meanwhile, Houston-based Sage Geosystems is planning a project within Texas after completing a pilot test that couples geothermal energy with power storage. Sage also raised funding last month, with Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. (Nasdaq: CHK) leading a $17 million round. 

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