AADE Houston IETG Meeting

 

For decades, the geothermal industry has relied on adapted oil and gas standards that fail to fully address the unique thermal and chemical realities of high-enthalpy reservoirs. To close this gap, the IADC Geothermal Committee has established the first comprehensive guidelines designed specifically for geothermal operations. This presentation details the five pillars of this new framework, which moves the industry beyond borrowed protocols to a dedicated safety culture.

 

With over 23 years in the industry, Toney Deere has extensive experience as an oilfield professional, specializing in operations management and complex drilling scenarios (HPHT, MPD, Geothermal, Horizontal) across the US, Iraq, and Yemen. Currently he is the Director of Training and certified Senior Well Control instructor at Well Control School, he demonstrates industry leadership as the IWCF North American chapter secretary and a panel member for industry standard committees, including IADC, API, and as Chair for the geothermal well control subcommittee.

 

 

Geothermal field production improves, as with petroleum fields, when well placement maximizes the surface area that is exposed to the optimal target resource.  Whether the reservoir is hydrocarbon-bearing rock or heat-bearing rock, there are common objectives.  The goal is usually to get the largest possible production pipe into the perfect location near this resource, over the longest section, and delivering the highest flow rate.

 

Oilfield drilling technologies like Measurement While Drilling (MWD) and Rotary Steerable Systems (RSS) can enable long lateral sections and complex multiple-well deployments, which require precision wellbore positioning.  Enhanced (EGS) and Advanced (AGS) Geothermal Systems require accurate placement of long, smooth wellbores, often in close, parallel proximity. EGS fracture networks must intersect both injector and producer wells, so the inter-well spacing must be precisely controlled. AGS is often based on intersecting two or more wellbores at depth - a difficult positioning task even in shallow, low-temp formations.  Drilling with MWD and RSS can optimize these geothermal multi-well developments, if the tools can be ruggedized for high temperature (HT), hard rock environments. 

 

But common availability of reliable HT MWD and RSS oilfield drilling tools took decades to reach 200°C. Maximum tool operating temperature rose in incremental steps of 25°C, taking nearly 10 years to mature a fleet of tools for each increase in capability. There are several weak links, when it comes to geothermal conditions, existing in today's drilling tools.

 

So consider: "How can we leapfrog quickly to 300°C for optimal geothermal development?"

 

Robert Estes retired after 45 years in MWD and drilling technology, working for all three major service companies. His expertise is in HP/HT design and packaging for downhole directional instruments, and he holds 30 patents. He led two 300°C drilling tool projects at Baker Hughes.  For SPE, he has delivered numerous talks and papers; and was also a volunteer and author for IEEE, IMAPS (HiTEC), ION, NASA-JPL, API, AADD, and IADC-DEC. Robert serves on the Utah FORGE STAT geothermal advisory team. An SPE Senior Member, he has volunteered in the MWD Section; the 2006 ATW on HT/HP Drilling; SPE-WPTS (ISCWSA); SPE-DSATS; as Director, SPE-GCS; and the SPE-GCS Northside Study Group.

 

Mazama Energy’s presentation highlights breakthroughs in drilling and well construction for Super Hot Rock (SHR) geothermal systems, demonstrating the feasibility of producing affordable, clean, high-temperature geothermal power at unprecedented conditions. The company successfully drilled through volcanic formations reaching bottom-hole temperatures of 331 °C, achieving record bit runs, major increases in rate of penetration, and zero downhole tool failures. These results validate well integrity, cement stability, and engineered reservoir creation at extreme temperatures. Mazama’s future endeavors is to advance a 15-MW commercial pilot, including doublets horizontal wells into SHR. The presentation examines the technical challenges of SHR development—tool durability, geomechanical risk, reservoir creation, thermal sustainability, and induced seismicity—and outlines Mazama’s solutions, including optimized PDC bit designs, advanced BHAs, real-time drilling optimization, temperature-management strategies, and improved sensing technologies. Overall, the project paves the way for scalable, next generation Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS).

 

 

Alexa Gonzalez Luis is the Drilling Engineering Manager at Mazama Energy, bringing more than 12 years of domestic and international experience across oil, gas, and geothermal operations. With over a decade dedicated to engineering, well planning, and drilling/stimulation, she was a drilling engineer on Mazama’s Pilot Project in Newberry Oregon. Alexa holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Arlington, where her research focused on risk management and probability of success in well delivery. Her industry involvement includes active participation in SPE and IADC committees for geothermal and managed pressure drilling. A published researcher, SPE mentor, and multilingual professional. 

 

For decades, drilling in extreme heat has been viewed as a mission impossible. The oil and gas industry has repeatedly encountered a hard ceiling at 200 °C, beyond which conventional electronics, actuation, and packaging methods fail. While multiple efforts have approached this limit, sustained and commercial operation above it has remained out of reach. However, like most barriers, it can be broken. A radically different approach to design and packaging of electronics and actuation has been demonstrated to work at temperatures significantly above 200°C. This step change enables advanced drilling technologies, originally developed for the unconventional shale boom in the United States and typically limited to ~175 °C, to be applied in the significantly hotter wells required for next-generation geothermal development.

This presentation will explore why higher temperature drilling capability delivers such high value to a rapidly growing geothermal industry. It will describe how these temperature limits have been overcome, outline the pathway to even higher operating thresholds, and examine what is required to build reliable electronics and sensors for the deeper, hotter wells that will be drilled in the coming years.

 

Steve Krase is a seasoned professional with over 45 years of experience in the Energy Industry. He is currently the CEO at Hephae Energy Technology. He has worked with companies like Chevron, Superior Oil Company, Teleco Oilfield Services, Baker Hughes, and Halliburton. Steve co-founded Navigate Energy Services and served as President/CEO before it was acquired by Nabors. He holds a BS in Geology from the University of Akron and has served as past President of the Ventura Chapter of SPWLA and is a member of SPE and AAPG. He has also served on the 1992 SPE Technical Committee for Formation Evaluation and the 2021 ADIPEC Technical Committee for Drilling.

The Norris CityCentre facility is located at the corner of intersection of IH-10 West and Beltway 8. The location features plenty of complimentary parking.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE – For your convenience, we encourage you to park in the garage that is attached to the Norris Centers location (enter the parking garage from Beltway 8). Take the “up” ramp in the middle of the parking garage. You will see signs with the Norris name and logo directing you to the correct floors to park.  Please note that a number of parking spaces are reserved for other tenants of the complex and have “reserved” signs identifying these spaces, so please avoid parking in these reserved spots.  There is plenty of parking on the roof!