Geophysics SIG Meeting – November (Online)

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Speaker: Peter Ledingham, Managing Director of GeoScience Ltd

Topic: Geothermal and oil & gas – collaborators or competitors?

Abstract

Although some pioneering geothermal power developers were already well-established oil & gas operators, there was for many years a clear distinction between the two businesses and it became more pronounced as the pro-renewables lobby also became the anti-fossil fuels lobby. Today, our focus on the energy transition means that the common ground is being emphasised more than the differences. GeoScience Ltd has operated successfully in both sectors for many years and this presentation summaries the journey that the company has taken from geothermal developer to oil & gas service provider and back again (with a diversion into radioactive waste disposal), and touches on the much talked about crossover and technology transfer that has gained recent momentum.

Speaker: Peter Ledingham, Managing Director of GeoScience Ltd, based in Cornwall, UK.

After graduating from Camborne School of Mines in 1980 with a degree in Mining Engineering, Peter worked for six years on the UK’s Hot Dry Rock geothermal research programme before joining GeoScience in 1986 as a reservoir engineer. He has worked on heat and power projects in Europe, the USA and the Asia-Pacific region, as part of project teams, providing advice to operators, regulators and investors, and carrying out due diligence, project evaluations and feasibility studies. From its inception until May 2020, Peter was the Project Manager of the United Downs Deep Geothermal Power project which successfully drilled two deep geothermal wells during 2018 and 2019 and aims to develop the first commercial geothermal power plant in the UK.