AN international energy services company with an office in Houston, Texas, an HQ in London, and operations in countries including the USA, Canada, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Norway, has been supplying equipment and expertise to the Eden Project’s geothermal energy scheme.

Hunting Energy Services (or just Hunting for short) is providing engineering, manufacturing and logistics expertise to the Eden Project for its EU-funded enterprise set up to unlock energy 4,500m deep in the granite beneath Cornwall and supply heat to its famous Biomes, kitchen and greenhouses.

Geothermal energy is produced naturally from the earth’s core. Typically, vertical wells are dug deep underground to access the thermal energy stored in the rocks and fluids beneath the earth’s crust, often reaching temperatures of 370°C.

For the Eden Geothermal project, the first part of a two-well system is currently being drilled. Once both phases are complete, hot water will be pumped down one well and the second will allow steam to rise to the surface and spin a turbine connected to an electricity generator.

This is Hunting’s first endeavour into the UK geothermal market, and it has the intention of expanding further into the European geothermal marketplace.

The Aberdeen arm of Hunting successfully project-managed and transported 20,000ft (approx. 6,100m) of casing for the new wells to the Eden Geothermal site. In addition, 20 of its personnel, including logistics staff, OCTG engineers, manufacturing and operations people, were involved in the operation and provided onsite tubular running support.

Ian Park, UK Managing Director for Hunting, said: “We are very excited that our first foray to support the UK’s energy transition is with the pioneering Eden Geothermal project.

“There are great synergies for our tubular product line across many of the renewable energy industries including geothermal, making us the ideal choice for this ground-breaking project. We have been able to apply our expert methodology, technical support, logistics and project management skills to deliver our products safely, which has opened the door for us to support further geothermal projects in the future.” 

Max Skerratt, Project Manager for Eden, said: ‘’Hunting Energy Services supplied us with all of our casing needs for a 5,277m (MD) geothermal well in granite. The casing was ordered in the middle of the first COVID lockdown – however, Hunting still managed to deliver all the casing with no delays to the programme. 

“The communication and after-sales service with experienced on-site technicians in order to help us run the casing was a great help. We would not hesitate to use Hunting again for any of our OCTG requirements.’’

Eden Geothermal Limited (EGL) is a three-way partnership between Eden Project Limited, EGS Energy Limited, a leading geothermal development and consultancy group, and BESTEC (UK) Limited, affiliated with BESTEC GmbH, the specialist geothermal developer and drilling advisor. 

To drill the first well, EGL secured £20 million funding from a combination of the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund, Cornwall Council and commercial funding from GCP Infrastructure Investments Limited, an investment trust advised by Gravis Capital Management Ltd.