GA Drilling, a geothermal technology company with headquarters in Bratislava, Slovakia, is a pioneer in plasma drilling. By integrating its innovative, contactless PLASMABIT drilling tool into Nabors' automated and lower-emission drilling operations, the collaboration aims to accelerate field commercialisation and eliminate traditional economic barriers of ultra-deep projects to expand global access to geothermal energy.
The agreement complements the pre-series investment round recently concluded by GA Drilling, with the total value of those new investments exceeding US$20 million.
Nabors has continued to implement its energy transition strategy targeted at high growth potential, lower-carbon energy markets. Through its investments in multiple clean energy ventures, Nabors has started to establish several ecosystems of complementary technologies that can benefit from synergies with its existing operations and competencies.
GA Drilling joins Nabors' geothermal ecosystem, which is comprised of three other prior venture investments in geothermal companies. These technologies were purposefully assembled to help make geothermal energy widely accessible across geographies, while reducing cost per unit of energy generated to match the cost of other energy sources.
Geothermal energy is one of the only clean, renewable and reliable baseload energy sources; however, due to the limited geographical distribution of high-temperature gradients and high legacy drilling costs, its full potential remains largely untapped.
PLASMABIT is engineered to enable ultra-deep drilling in high-temperature hard formations at a cost comparable to unconventional horizontal drilling. Using an electric arc with a chemically assisted plasma pulse, this laboratory-proven bit aims to penetrate crystalline rock at high penetration rates, at depths exceeding 10km (6.2 miles).
Clean electricity is generated by producing water heated in the earth's crust and converting it to power at the surface. Building on a common technology ecosystem and infrastructure, and the ability to access geothermal almost anywhere, this solution should speed up and expand the availability of carbon-free fuel options for power generation.
Anthony G. Petrello, chairman, CEO and president of Nabors said: "Now is the time to invest in innovative and bold geothermal solutions that have the potential to unlock terawatts of clean, renewable and reliable energy on a truly global scale. Given the expected sharp growth in global energy consumption over the next decades, the world will require an even sharper growth in sustainable energy supply. I am convinced that geothermal energy will be a key contributor to the necessary increase in clean energy generation.
"With our unmatched portfolio of drilling, automation and digitalisation technologies, Nabors intends to become a key player in the upcoming expansion of geothermal energy. We look forward to leveraging the GA Drilling centre of excellence and integrating their technologies into our ecosystem."
Igor Kočiš, founder and CEO of GA Drilling, added: "We welcome Nabors not only as an investor but also as a strategic partner. The present agreement will allow us to move faster through the final stages of PLASMABIT development, leveraging the synergies to integrate this revolutionary drilling tool into the systems of the rig. Nabors will introduce European high-technology capacities into the U.S. market. Together, we will work toward meeting imminent demand to rapidly diversify the global energy mix. With this collaboration, we have made another big step toward delivering on our promise of 'Geothermal Anywhere'."
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