Maibarara developer taps Desco for new drilling

MANILA, Philippines - Maibarara Geothermal Inc. (MGI), the owner and developer of the Maibarara geothermal power facility, has tapped Desco Inc. to start drilling a new well in the project by end-May.

MGI disclosed yesterday it signed a contract for the provision of drilling rig and services for MB-17RD, a new reinjection well in MGI’s Maibarara geothermal field in Sto. Tomas, Batangas with Desco Inc.

Desco is a local engineering, procurement and construction contractor for geothermal, oil and gas projects.

MGI said the well is intended to be spudded by the last week of May, programmed to reach a total depth of 1,900 meters.

MGI president F.G. Delfin Jr. said the drilling came on the heels of the final investment decision for the firm’s 12-megawatt (MW) Maibarara-2 project (M2) approved by the company’s board last Jan. 18.

The company board also cleared the P1.4-billion loan from RCBC last Feb. 29 and the 20-year offtake agreement for M2 signed with Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. last April 25.

Maria Victoria Olivar, PetroEnergy Resources Corp. (PERC) assistant vice president for technical affairs, said the new well is intended to increase the reinjection capacity of the expanded Maibarara geothermal field.

“We will mobilize Desco Rig 30 as soon as we receive approval from the DOE (Department of Energy) of our notice of intention to drill filed last week,” she said.

In the meantime, Delfin said the construction works for the expanded steamfield pipeline system by several contractors have been ongoing since early February.

“We are committed to completing the M2 unit by October 2017 to provide more clean, renewable and reliable baseload power generation for the Luzon grid without need for feed-in-tariff support,” he said.

MGI is a joint-venture company owned 65 percent by PetroGreen Energy Corp. (PGEC), Trans-Asia with 25 percent and PNOC Renewables Corp. with 10 percent.

PGEC is the renewable energy holding company 90 percent owned by publicly-listed PERC.

The existing 20-MW Maibarara-1 integrated geothermal power facility was commissioned in February 2014 and was declared by the DOE as the first commercial renewable energy (RE) project under the 2008 RE Law.