and going well according to drilling experts
by Bennette Roach :
This report comes nine days after Director of Public Works, Ron Beardsley announced that drilling to prove geothermal resource on Montserrat began. That commencement was delayed and postponed when the engine failed to function.
Roger Almond confirmed, “The engine was the problem, everything’s running really well,” he said, adding that, while the engine is not brand new that was better because brand new need time to “break-in”.
“We started nine days ago, we’re good,” Almond told The Montserrat Reporter on Tuesday this week. “
He added, “we are in the second stage and we’re getting ready to put the casings in the ground, this is the second stage.”
He pointed out the pipe here, as he explained, “we’re going to put this in next this is called the casing.” (see TMR photo)
“We have already put in the bigger casing earlier last week and now we’re putting another section of the casing so all this is going in,” he explained.
Almond reported that they have reached about 300 meters. “I figure we’re down 300meters down to a possible 2250….,” he said.
He reported also that they have not encountered any difficulties and no excess temperatures adding, “we’re waiting for that, but we don’t want them yet,” noting, “we want ‘em in a deeper section,” reiterating, “but right now everything is going well.”
He further reassured that the drilling good, and “the drills are working good.”
Roger Almond
Almond is a member of the firm Capuano Engineering out of California who are supervising the drilling operations on behalf of Montserrat. There are four of them. They take spells, two at a time, “at least two of us at any given time,” as Almond, the leadsman noted to us.
He gave a further insight to the process of the drilling. He said that it is believed that they are drilling right over the reservoir. “We’re looking for the temperature to increase and we’re looking for influx … maybe we’ll see a formation that shows this is the reservoir, that’s what the geologist is looking for….”
Ron Beardsley a week ago, stated: “Drilling will now be almost continuous until we find the resource or go down to a maximum depth of two kilometers also as they’re drilling down; they drill to a certain depth and then they withdraw the drill and they put the steel casing,” confirming Almonds description.
The drilling was scheduled to start on February 23, but eventually kicked into action at noon on March 17.
The 8.5 million pounds UK Government funded drilling project exploration phase is estimated to last forty (40) to sixty (60) days.
