With funding from US Department of Energy under DE-FC36-04GO14342, NM Tech is currently drilling a 1500-foot-deep geothermal well. Drilling began on October 21, 2009. Rodgers and Company, Inc out of Albuquerque is our drilling contractor. Our goal is to reach a temperature of at least 65°C and 800 gpm. James Wither is the well site geologist on the project.

Questions regarding the drilling program should be directed to Principal Investigator Mark Person (mperson@nmt.edu; 575-835-6506). NMT article. NY Times article.

Current Status: 18 November 2009

18 November 2009

In the last week, we have experienced two bore hole collapses. After 6 cement jobs, we have decided to switch from a Gardner Denver 1500 table rotary to a Ingersol Rand TH100A top head rotary drill rig. We will recommence drilling on Nov. 30th. Our plan is to advance with casing using the percussion air hammer method. Depth: 419 feet; Temperature: 41°C; Flow rate: 1000 gpm

13 November 2009

12 November 2009

We are currently at a depth of 396 feet. We drilled through the cement plug in the 12" diameter well over the night using a 7" hammer bit. We have encountered hydrothermally altered sandstone and shales. The shales are highly fractured and "sluffing" into the hole. We are currently doing another (4th) cement job to stabilize this formation. Then we will drill through this and proceed with the drilling.

2 November 2009

We started our third cement job on Monday afternoon (295-235 feet) and plan to drill through it Tuesday evening. We are now below the water table and producing about 900 gpm of fluids. Temperatures are about 38°C. We are encountering a lot of busted up rocks. This is creating a lot of drilling complications but also means we have good permeability. We hope to set the 12” casing after we drill through the cement.

This report is based on my daily conversation with Witcher and Troy Richardson.

31 October 2009

We completed the cement job on Friday (190-235 feet) and drilled through it. There was some loss of cement into the formation. We continued to drill through the cement and drilled to 265 feet. At this time, the driller went on drillers standby as the compressor Rodgers is using was not powerfull enough to blow all the water and cuttings out of the hole (their compressor is rated at 350 and 700 cfs). It seems that the fractures are so permeable, we are losing air pressure to the formation. A more powerful compressor (1100 cfs) is being shipped in from Farmington. If this doesn't work, we will have to do another cement job. Witcher has asked the driller to stockpile cement so that we can proceed this evening if we need to do a cement job.

We are just below the water table. Witcher estimated the current flow rate of about 800 gpm. However, we are using foam and mud so this is not a true formation foam rate. Since we are just at the water table, I have no temperature or PH to report.

Witcher thinks we may be able to reach 300 feet by Monday and case the hole at that time. Then we switch to a 7" hammer bit and things should go much more smoothly. Keep in mind that all these problems mean we are encountering a lot of fractured, permeable rocks!

This report is based on my daily converstation with Witcher. Witcher will provide more detailed reports when he gets off the well.

30 October 2009

Depth: 210 ft, Temperature: 28°C, Flow rate: 0

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