Mighty River begins drilling in Mangakino geothermal field

State-owned power company, Mighty River Power (MRP), which has plans to invest $1 billion in geothermal development, had begun exploratory geothermal drilling in the Mangakino field by Lake Taupo.

The company said drilling was being carried out on remote forested land owned by Carter Holt Harvey 8km west of Mangakino.

The exploration programme starts later this month and will take about 40 days. MRP will use 100 people in the drilling programme including international experts and its own geothermal specialists.

The well will be drilled to between 2500 and 3000 metres.

MRP already operates two geo-thermal power stations -- the 28MW Rotokawa Station and the 55 MW Mokai Station.

MRP said earlier this month it had spent 18 months recruiting geothermal specialists for a new team of 20.

Each well is expected to cost about $5 million and the company plans to spend about $100 million in the next few years drilling wells.

Chief executive Doug Heffernan said up to another 400MW of geothermal power could be developed in the central North Island, costing about $1 billion, but that required extensive drilling to find suitable fields.

He acknowledged public concern at subsidence near the Wairakei and Ohaaki geothermal power stations and said geothermal developments would depend on gaining resource consents.

In the next two to four years MRP would be expanding its 28MW Rotokawa geothermal plant to 100MW and the Mokai geothermal plant to near 100MW. The company was also examining the Ngata Mariki field.

- NZPA