December 12 (SeeNews) - UK-based Star Energy Group said on Tuesday that a drill rig has been mobilised to a recently constructed well pad on its Ernestinovo licence in eastern Croatia.
The rig will re-enter the Ernestinovo-3 well to test the geothermal potential of the fractured metamorphic pre-Cenozoic formation, Star Energy Group said in a press release.
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Croatia-based international drilling company Crosco is conducting the well re-entry programme.
The operation is likely to continue for about a month, with results expected by late January 2024.
The Ernestinovo licence has excellent data from three deep exploration wells drilled in the 1980s and would suggest high temperatures and flow rates are achievable from this well, Star Energy said.
The company's internal assessment forecasts the potential for a first phase development of a 10 MW electricity generation plant utilising five to six wells producing and re-injecting geothermal brine. The proposed plant would connect into the Ernestinovo HOPS substation - a major substation with 400kV transmission lines to the national grid, Hungary, Serbia and Bosnia, and local distribution lines at 110 kV and 85kV - and sell electricity on either a market premium arrangement (CfD) or bilaterally.