China taps high-temperature geothermal with 5200m exploration well

Source:ThinkGeoEnergy – Geothermal Energy News
Original URL:https://www.thinkgeoenergy.com/china-taps-high-temperature-geothermal-with-5000m-exploration-well/

Having completed drilling of the 5200m Fushen-1 geothermal exploration well in April 2024, the China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) has now announced that high-temperature geothermal resources have been tested at depths of 4600 meters and 5100 meters. Tests have confirmed temperatures of more than 188 °C.

Sinopec has also conducted reservoir stimulation, water injection, and heat extraction from the exploration well, thus forming a complete set of deep geothermal exploration, development, and utilization analyses. With the data collected from the well, Guo Xusheng of the Chinese Academy of Engineering indicated that says that the project team believes that there is a very rich geothermal resource within the 50 square kilometers around the project site, roughly equivalent to 1.4 billion tons of standard coal resources.

The drilling of the exploration well in the city of Haikou, the capital of the southern Hainan province, started in August 2023. The original objectives of the drilling project – to better characterize the subsurface formation in the region and the potential of geothermal resources in the surrounding area – seem to have been fulfilled.

While concrete plans for the utilization of the well have not been announced, the aim for geothermal in the Hainan region is to generate electricity, provide refrigeration, and produce hot domestic water under a cascade model.

Source: Sinopec and China Daily