The Iceland Drilling Company Ltd. through its head Vilhjalmur Gudmundsson, Head of Marketing and Business Development for Jardboranir, signed a contract while Philip Chambers, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Communications & Works represented the Government of Montserrat.
IDC was the only company to submit a bid to drill for geothermal on island. The company was granted a conditional letter of award on September 27, 2012. Since then the contract works were completed in early October with the official signing taking place on October 16, 2012.
Gudmundsson said they are hopeful that they will be able to find geothermal energy. IDC who possesses a fleet of new hydraulic rigs and modern drilling equipment that can be transferred swiftly from one part of the world to another, recently completed the drilling of two test wells on Dominica and will be moving their operations here shortly to begin drilling in January 2013.
According a GIU release, IDC is a leading high technical company in the field of high temperature deep geothermal drilling and has many decades of experience in both high and low temperature drilling The company submitted a bid of just over six million dollars (US $ 6.3) to drill for geothermal energy in and around Cork Hill/Delvins.
The drilling is estimated to take three to four months, says Ron Beardsley, Director of the Public Works Department. “…it will take proximately three to four months to complete the two wells which are 5000ft deep each,” he announced, explaining that this is to take place in Zone C, which is part of the island’s Exclusion Zone.
Mr. Erwin Edwards
The company has well-grounded expertise in international deep drilling projects, with a record of 7,000 wells around the world, of which 260 high temperature wells were found in the last 15 years. IDC´s field of operations has been in the Azores (Portugal), UK, Denmark, Ireland, Hungary, Germany, Caribbean, Switzerland and in New Zealand. Currently the company is working in Iceland, Caribbean, and New Zealand.
Montserrat pays 1.7 million pounds annually for fuel imports and is 100% dependent on fossil fuel. Beardsley said he is pleased to be a part of this latest phase of geothermal exploration a vision that the island’s leaders first explored in 1976 and again in the early 1990s.
The geothermal wells will be drilled between Weekes Village and Garibaldi Hill. A 2012 Geothermal Exploration Report done by EGS of California said there was an 80% likelihood of geothermal energy on Montserrat.
Environmental Impact Assessment
Meanwhile on Wednesday, October 10, a forum which had been postponed was held at Lyme complex in Brades, where a discussion over an Evironmental Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) was conducted by Athom Solutions Inc. (ASI), a global energy and technology services provider registered in Barbados who won the contract for the project, valued at EC$ 105,000.
Mr. Cathal Healy-Singh
Erwin Edwards and Cathal Healy-Singh of ASI along with PWD Ron Beardsley led the discussion aimed at according to the PWD head, “the outcomes from the ESIA will determine if restrictions or mitigation measures are required to minimise the impact on any endangered fauna/flora, wildlife habitats or water sources. It also looks at potential impacts on the public and residents nearby.”
Earlier he had said that, “Given the location we are not anticipating too many issues. The impact of ash and acid rain has taken its toll on the area and there are no habitable dwellings nearby.”
