Eavor Technologies has announced the successful completion of its next generation geothermal demonstration project in New Mexico, USA: Eavor-Deep™.

Beginning in August and concluding in December of last year, after having drilled a two-leg multilateral well down to 18,000’ TVD and ~250°C, Eavor met its objectives, including achieving technical milestones which have drawn a follow-on investment of $10 million CAD from bp Ventures (“bp Ventures”).   

These milestones were a combination of technical and operational measures and markers including depth, temperature, bit-life and rate of penetration in granite rock.

Several other objectives were reached including:

• Isolation of the upper fractured permeable zone with casing to enable drilling of the multilaterals in the deeper low permeability basement rock, and subsequent sealing with Rock-Pipe™ technology.
• Demonstrated insulated drill pipe (“IDP”) thermodynamic and mechanical performance with increased Rate of Penetration aided by shock cooling.
• Successfully executed cased hole side-track in granite.
• Demonstrated directional steering ability in hard rock with difficult intrusions and interbedded metamorphic formations.
• Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (“H&P”) has also added to its 2021 equity investment, bringing its total to $10.2 million CAD, building on the companies’ ongoing collaborative efforts to further advance state of the art drilling technologies.

Mark Hodder, VP Drilling at Eavor, stated that: 
“The opportunity to confront this level of technical drilling challenges is rare. Our successes at Eavor-Deep™ are credited to the talents, commitment and passion of the combined teams of Eavor and H&P.”

Combined with the proof of concept demonstrated at the Derek Riddell Eavor-Lite™ Demonstration Facility near Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Canada in 2019, the milestones reached at Eavor-Deep™ in 2022 have validated all the key elements required to construct and operate commercial Eavor-Loops.

Matt Toews, CTO at Eavor, stated that: 
“The goals for our technology include not only reaching sub US$60 per megawatt-hour costs, but to enable widespread global scalability. The progress made in New Mexico is a critical step in this endeavor, and alongside our partners we will continue this process of innovation and iteration.”

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Eavor