A previous attempt to unblock the well in September last year using artesian pressure did not work.

The current well intervention plan was spudded five days later than expected last Friday due to the late arrival of the contractor’s supervisors from a job in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The intervention plan, which is being carried out fully under-balanced using only water, is aimed at restoring the connection with the previously developed underground heat exchanger.

A snubbing unit is being used to enable a drill bit to enter an overpressured well trhough the well head without first killing the overpressure with heavy drill mud and without use of a bridge plug.

Geodynamics added that the overpressure control equipment was operating according to plan.

This morning, the drill bit was close to entering the original sidetrack well at a depth of 3872m to determine the depth of the dropped plug and find out whether the plug can be pushed below the fractured zone, which is part of the underground reservoir. If unsuccessful, a new 500m sidetrack will be drilled from a depth of 3852m to 4352m.

Late last year, Geodynamics won a $A5 million Renewable Energy Development Initiative Federal Government grant to build and operate Australia’s first hot fractured rocks geothermal demonstration power plant – a high-efficiency Kalina cycle generation plant in the Cooper Basin near Innamincka, South Australia.

But a firm decision on this depends on results from the Habanero-2 well intervention plan and a circulation test confirming the existence of a geothermal reserve between this well and the original Habanero-1 exploration well.