Greenearth – an affiliate of Lakes Oil and Victoria Petroleum – holds three geothermal exploration tenements in Victoria, based on heat data encountered by Lakes in the region.

VicPet told the market today that Greenearth’s IPO closed, after commitments were received meeting the $10 million subscription level.

“Victoria Petroleum considers that Greenearth Energy is well-positioned to contribute to the future need for renewable energy resources for Victoria with its excellent geothermal prospects,” it said.

Two of Greenearth’s permits cover the Latrobe Valley/Gippsland region, with the third covering the western part of Melbourne and Geelong.

A total of $1.8 million has been spent gathering heat information, including data from several of Lakes' existing wells and the recently-drilled Hazelwood-1 and Boola Boola-2 wells.

Several months ago, Greenearth signed a memorandum of understanding with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology to develop new technologies for exploiting geothermal resources.

Geodynamics

Meanwhile in South Australia, Geodynamics is a step closer to proving its hot rocks model with the news its Habanero-3 well has reached a total target depth of 4221 metres.

In addition to reached total depth, the target fracture zone was intersected at 4180m, it said.

“The intersection of the target fracture zone was confirmed through pressure excursions in monitoring devices in both Habanero-1 and Habanero-3,” Geodynamics said.

“These excursions confirmed the existence of a hydraulic connection between the two wells.”

Habanero 3 is the largest well of this depth ever drilled onshore in Australia and is the first commercial scale hot fractured rock production well to be drilled.

Over the next week, the company intends to insert a slotted steel liner into the bottom open hole section of the well, which is designed to maintain well integrity, and complete the well by installing valves and pipe work.

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