Fervo Energy drills 15,765-ft, 520°F geothermal well

Fervo Energy drilled and logged its hottest and deepest geothermal well to date. The Sugarloaf appraisal well was drilled to a true vertical depth of 15,765 ft and is projected to reach a bottomhole temperature of 520°F after full thermal equilibration. Fervo completed the ultra-deep well in just 16 drilling days, representing a 79% reduction in drilling time compared to the US Department of Energy baseline for ultradeep geothermal wells.

While drilling, the company was able to achieve a maximum bit run length of 3,290 ft, a maximum average ROP of 95 ft/hour, and an instantaneous ROP of over 300 ft/hour at depths greater than 15,000 ft.

Various geothermal resource evaluation and grid modeling studies – including recent reports by the US Geological Survey, Princeton University and National Renewable Energy Laboratory – have now aligned that there are hundreds of gigawatts of opportunity for geothermal deployment in the range of 10,000-20,000 ft and 400-600°F.