ThermaPrime Drilling Corp. (ThermaPrime), the Philippines’ leading geothermal well drilling company owned by the Lopez Group, is expanding operations by acquiring three more rigs to support the expansion program of its affiliate and help the country attain energy security.
ThermaPrime said in a statement Wednesday two of the three drilling rigs have a capacity of 1,500 horsepower (hp), while the third has a 1,000-hp capacity.
The company purchased the rigs from the United States and the United Arab Emirates recently.
ThermaPrime said the acquisition augments its two current 2,000-hp rigs and supports the development of additional geothermal wells of affiliate Energy Development Corp. (EDC), the country’s biggest vertically integrated geothermal company.
EDC is undertaking a P30-billion program to drill until 2026 another 40 geothermal wells in its geothermal sites in Albay, Sorsogon, Leyte, Negros and Davao for its parent firm First Gen Corp. (First Gen).
“The main focus of EDC over the next three years is to make sure that we can continue to deliver the amount of renewable source of geothermal for our customers,” EDC vice chairman and chief executive Francis Giles Puno said last year.
“Part of that is a need to drill close to 40 wells over the next three years… to make sure that we can continue to extract sustainable steam from the ground,” Puno said.
The drilling forms part of the overall program of First Gen as a group to expand its renewable energy (RE) capacity by over 7,000 megawatts by 2030.
ThermaPrime, which specializes in drilling geothermal wells and related services, has been a key enabler of geothermal power in the country, completing over 200 projects since the company was founded in 2011.
First Gen is the Philippines’ leading RE producer, with 26 hydro, wind, solar and geothermal power facilities with over 1,650 MW of total RE capacity.
First Gen’s portfolio of RE plants generated 8,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity in 2023, primarily from its geothermal units.
ThermaPrime and First Gen are subsidiaries of Lopez-led First Philippine Holdings Corp., one of the country’s biggest and oldest conglomerates with strong advocacies to protect the environment and help fight adverse climate change through programs that include the reduction of carbon emissions.
