Abstract
Abstract. A summary workshop report describing the progress made so far by the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) is presented below. The report provides recommendations concerning technical aspects related to deep drilling, and invites international participation in both the engineering and the scientific activities of the next phase of the IDDP. No issues were identified at the workshop that should rule out attempting the drilling, sampling and testing of the proposed IDDP-2 well. Although technically challenging, the consensus of the workshop was that the drilling of such a hot deep well, and producing potentially hostile fluids, is possible but requires careful contingency planning. The future well will be explored for supercritical fluid and/or superheated steam beneath the current production zone of the Reykjanes geothermal field in SW Iceland. This deep borehole will provide the first opportunity worldwide to directly investigate the root zone of a magma-hydrothermal system which is likely to be similar to those beneath the black smokers on the world-encircling mid-ocean rift systems.
Highlights
Ninety-four engineers and scientists attended a workshop on the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) from 3 to 5 September 2012, at Svartsengi, SW Iceland to discuss (i) the lessons learned from the first IDDP-1 exploratory borehole, in 2009 at the Krafla Volcano in NE Iceland, and (ii) plans to drill and study a new 4–5 km-deep borehole, IDDP-2, at Reykjanes, which is planned to be drilled in 2014–2015 at the SW tip of the island where the Reykjanes Ridge emerges from the Atlantic ocean (Fig. 1).The workshop was funded by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program and by the IDDP
No issues were identified at the workshop that should rule out attempting the drilling, sampling and testing of the proposed IDDP-2 well
The future well will be explored for supercritical fluid and/or superheated steam beneath the current production zone of the Reykjanes geothermal field in SW Iceland
Summary
Ninety-four engineers and scientists attended a workshop on the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) from 3 to 5 September 2012, at Svartsengi, SW Iceland to discuss (i) the lessons learned from the first IDDP-1 exploratory borehole, in 2009 at the Krafla Volcano in NE Iceland, and (ii) plans to drill and study a new 4–5 km-deep borehole, IDDP-2, at Reykjanes, which is planned to be drilled in 2014–2015 at the SW tip of the island where the Reykjanes Ridge emerges from the Atlantic ocean (Fig. 1). One of the chief conclusions of that report was that a well that produces supercritical fluids should have a greatly enhanced power output relative to conventional high-temperature geothermal wells. This initial study identified three locations: Krafla, Hengill (Nesjavellir) and Reykjanes, (see Fig. 1) as being suitable locations to site deep wells to produce supercritical geothermal fluids. The economic motivation behind the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) is that deeper geothermal wells that penetrate higher enthalpy resources, capable of producing supercritical fluid, have the potential to greatly enhance the power output of geothermal fields without enlarging their size and environmental footprints (Friðleifsson and Elders, 2005). A complete ICDP-IDDP Workshop Report 2012 is provided at http://www.iddp.is
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