The geothermal drilling program that had been cast by EDC commands an investment of P30 billion covering 40 wells that are up for completion by 2026 – and project-sites demarcated by the company are those in Albay, Sorsogon, Leyte, Negros and Davao.
Lopez firm beefs up geothermal drilling portfolio with 3 add’l rigs
At a glance
Lopez-led ThermaPrime Drilling Corporation (ThermaPrime) has beefed up its geothermal drilling business segment with three more rigs that it can immediately utilize for the expansion of its operations.
According to the company, two of the newly acquired drilling rigs are of 1,500 horsepower (hp); while the third one has 1,000-hp capacity.
One of the rigs acquired by ThermaPrime Drilling Corp of the Lopez group
“ThermaPrime purchased the rigs recently from the United States and United Arab Emirates,” the company said, but it has not specified the names of the company-sellers.
With the new acquisition, ThermaPrime emphasized that the three rigs will augment its two existing rigs of 2,000-hp; and these can “support the development of additional geothermal wells of affiliate Energy Development Corporation (EDC).”
Since its establishment in 2011, ThermaPrime thrived in its provision of services to the drilling of geothermal wells as well as other related services – and its solid track record is underpinned by 200 projects that it completed so far.
EDC is currently the biggest geothermal power producer in the country with vertically integrated operations - meaning, it is engaged in steam production and that would also be subsequently fed into the geothermal plants of the Lopez group.
The geothermal drilling program that had been cast by EDC commands an investment of P30 billion covering 40 wells that are up for completion by 2026 – and project-sites demarcated by the company are those in Albay, Sorsogon, Leyte, Negros and Davao.
“The drilling forms part of the overall program of First Gen as a group to expand its renewable energy (RE) capacity by over 7,000 megawatts by year 2030,” the Lopez firm stressed.
If the geothermal energy production in the country could be optimized, this is seen as a perfect-fit solution to the country’s dire need for additional renewable energy-generated baseload capacity – a highly reliable technology at that because it is not vulnerable to cyclical weather patterns.
Apart from the Lopez group’s robust geothermal development platform, First Gen has also been shoring up its diverse green generation portfolio across solar, wind and hydro facilities.
The conglomerate currently has 1,650 MW of total RE capacity; and that enabled it to yield electricity generation summing up to 8,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) last year – the bulk of which had been from its geothermal fleets.