When drilling the Holzkirchen geothermal well on the Egmating licence, overpressured gas was encountered in the Rupel Sandstone at 4200m. The gas had to be flared for 4 days before the well was brought back into control. An analysis of the 3-D seismic data allowed the presence of the gas to be identified and the well was plugged back and a deviated sidetrack was successfully drilled to avoid the gas and reach the Malm target horizon.
Interpretation of the limited 2-D currently available to the company suggests the potential for as much as 75BCF of gas to be present. Work following up on this discovery will continue in 2017.