Geothermal Well Drilling Estimates Based on Past Well Costs
- Key words
- Drilling; Well Cost; Cost Data; USA; Average Costs; Various Depths; Exponentially; Cost Factor; Problem Wells; Cost Trends; Small Sample; US DOE; UURI
- Conference
- Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
- Year
- 1979
- Session
- Drilling; Economics
- Language
- English
Abstract
Well costs vary roughly exponentially with well depth. Plots indicating this have been made using data from nineteen geothermal wells of varying depths. These plots indicated both the average costs to drill wells and the costs to drill wells without problems. Average well costs are above estimates base don the assumption that the well proceeds according to plan. The average cost should be considered for planning programs in which large numbers of wells are involved. Estimates based on the assumption that the well can be drilled according to plan may be used for planning programs involving one or two wells, but the average costs should be considered in contingency planning.
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