Recording breaking successful appraisal well paves the way for new productivity records for the geothermal energy industry

Excerpt from BUSINESS WIRE--Fervo Energy today announced the successful drilling and logging of its Sugarloaf appraisal well, an operational achievement that demonstrates the rapid advancement and scalability of enhanced geothermal systems (“EGS”). The well was drilled to a true vertical depth of 15,765 feet and is projected to reach a bottomhole temperature of 520 °F after full thermal equilibration. Fervo completed the Sugarloaf well in just 16 drilling days, representing a 79% reduction in drilling time compared to the US Department of Energy baseline for ultradeep geothermal wells.

While drilling what is Fervo’s hottest and deepest well to-date, the company was able to achieve multiple drilling performance records, including a maximum bit run length of 3,290 feet, a maximum average rate of penetration (“ROP”) of 95 feet/hour, and an instantaneous ROP of over 300 feet/hour at depths greater than 15,000 feet. These results expand the window for commercial viability of EGS into a significantly deeper and hotter regime, paving the way to deploy the technology outside of the western US.

Various geothermal resource evaluation and grid modeling studies – including recent reports by the US Geological Survey, Princeton University, and National Renewable Energy Laboratory – have now aligned that there are hundreds of gigawatts of opportunity for geothermal deployment in the range of 10,000 to 20,000 feet and 400 to 600 °F.

As US power demand accelerates - driven by AI, electrification, and grid reliability needs - Fervo’s ability to unlock firm, carbon-free energy from heat reservoirs miles underground positions it as a core contributor to the American energy mix.