Ecopetrol to proceed with drilling for Caldas geothermal project, Colombia

Manzanares, Caldas, Colombia (source: Jhoan Sebastian Escobar Castro, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Carlo Cariaga 13 Feb 2024

Colombian state-owned petroleum company Ecopetrol has announced that it will now invest on drilling for the planned geothermal power generation project in Caldas, Colombia. A pair of deep wells, each to a depth of 2500 meters, are planned to be drilling within one to two years.

The decision to proceed to drilling comes after the surface studies done by the partnership of Ecopetrol, Baker Hughes, and Grupo EPM’s Caldas Hydroelectric Power Plant (CHEC). The signing of the memorandum of understanding between the three parties took place in March 2023.

Drilling the two exploratory wells will help the partners more accurately determine the size of the geothermal resource, as well as characterize the reservoir and its fluids. This will require an investment of about COP 98 billion, or close to USD 25 million.

The plan for the first phase of the project is to develop a 30-MW geothermal power plant. This will supply energy for about 200,000 families or more than 923,000 people . This is about held of the population that CHEC serves in Caldas and Risaralda, not counting Pereira. The power plant will require an investment of about COP 656 billion (approx. USD 167 million).

Initial geothermal exploration in the Caldas region was done back in 1997 by now-defunct company Geoenergia Andina (Gesa). Drilling of the Nereidas 1 well was done to a depth of 1400 meters, tapping a 200 °C resource. However, the flow from the well was not sufficient, and the company did not have the funding to proceed with the project.

With the new plant to drill to a greater depth, the project partners are hoping to tap into a resource with both the temperature and pressure to support geothermal power generation.

Source: La Patria