ThermaPrime Drilling Corporation (ThermaPrime), a subsidiary of Lopez-led First Philippine Holdings Corp (FPH), said it has completed drilling of its 15 wells for Philippine Geothermal Production Company Inc. (PGPC), the pioneer geothermal resource exploration and development company of the Sy group.

In a statement to the media, ThermaPrime said it delivered 12 production wells and three multilateral injection wells for PGPC, emphasizing that the drilling program carried out 10 work-over jobs over a period of four years.

“The whole campaign produced more than 100-megawatt additional steam production for PGPC from its geothermal steam fields in Laguna, Batangas and Tiwi, Albay,” the Lopez firm noted.

In particular, ThermaPrime reported that “one of the drilled wells in the Makiling-Banahaw area is by far the country’s deepest for ‘large hole’ with a depth of 11,849 feet.”

That drilling activity, it specified, “holds a speed record for geothermal drilling” because that has been completed within just a span of less than a month.

A production well is typically drilled for discovery or production of geothermal resources while multilateral injection wells enable access to more reservoir area and volume. It can also reinforce sweep efficiency and recovery factor, hence, they can reduce the number of wells to be drilled to develop a geothermal field.

It was highlighted that PGPC is “looking to progress its other geothermal concessions and increase its renewable energy output to about 600 MW,” a goal that will ably help the green energy shift being advanced by the government.

As conveyed by ThermaPrime, “PGPC advocates for indigenous geothermal energy as an important component in the country’s overall energy development plan being the only baseload renewable energy source that is available 24/7.”

Geothermal is a major renewable energy (RE) technology that the Philippines can reliably depend on for power capacity with round-the-clock availability, hence, this is also the preferred clean energy solution of many companies that have been accelerating on their net zero carbon emissions goal.

By ramping up electricity production from geothermal, end-users who have been exercising their power of choice on patronizing RE as a source of their electricity supply could have broader leeway on contracting capacity from power plants utilizing this resource for electricity generation.

ThermaPrime which has business focus on geothermal well drilling services, is duly registered with the Philippine Overseas Construction Board (POCB) and the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) as a drilling services contracting company.

The Lopez firm vouched of a drilling workforce comprising of highly-skilled and well-trained engineers with combined average experience of more than 20 years.