by Bennette Roach
Work is scheduled to resume on the third Geothermal Well in St. George Hill in the next month or so, since drilling ended towards the end of last year. Martin Dawson reports that efforts were being made to maintain the integrity of the well because there were concerns that developed while they were drilling the well.
It is not clear how the Ministry of Communications and Works with the Ministry of Finance ceased to be the lead on the UK funded geothermal development, but from time to time Dawson, DFID’s Montserrat representative whose office is based at the Governor’s Office, and who sits in on the Governor’s press conference, updates especially when asked on the progress of continuing geothermal development in Montserrat.
When drilling ended towards end of last year efforts were being made to maintain the integrity of the well because there were concerns While they were drilling the well was becoming unusable
At the recent Governor’s press conference, he updated as follows: “We were able to, with the technical expertise from the teams, we made the decision to use bentonite slurry to secure the well which is a mud slurry which worked. The well is safe which is good, but (what) that created a situation where that slurry is now must be cleaned out before we can go into the stimulation short term testing phase.”
Dawson who claims responsibility for the continued geothermal development project, continues: “That was unforeseen although I had planned for it just in case and when I did the business case.”
He said: “So what we’re doing at the moment we had to extend contracts with the drilling supervisors and the drilling contractors for the projects of some have gone a little bit over our planned time…”
He reported further that they are in the process now of discussing with both those contractors’ the plan for the next phase for the cleaning of the well and the stimulation the short-term testing.
