On Wednesday, Nabors Industries, the U.S.-listed maker of oil and gas drilling equipment, announced that it has made a $8 million direct investment in GA Drilling, a Slovakian geothermal energy startup. In an official announcement, Nabors described the strategic investment as a commitment to deep-drilling technologies tapping super-hot, ultra-deep rock reservoirs.
GA Drilling, headquartered in Bratislava, Slovakia, is a pioneer in so-called plasma drilling for geothermal energy. The company has developed a contactless drilling tool called PLASMABIT, 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 bit aims to penetrate crystalline rock at high penetration rates, at depths exceeding 10 km (6.2 miles). Clean electricity is thereby generated by producing water heated in the earth’s crust, converting it to power at the surface. Nabors and GA Drilling say that 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.
PLASMABIT is currently being integrated into Nabors’ automated, lower-emission drilling operations, part of a collaboration that aims to accelerate field commercialization and eliminate traditional economic barriers of ultra-deep projects to expand global access to geothermal energy.
This agreement complements GA Drilling’s recently concluded pre-series venture capital round, with new investments exceeding $20 million. Prior investors include Berlin-based climate tech venture capital fund Extantia Capital, Budapest scale-up venture capital investor Lead Ventures, and original seed investor Neulogy Ventures of Slovakia.
GA Drilling marks the latest addition to Nabors’ strategic geothermal energy portfolio, part of its energy transition strategy targeted at high growth potential, lower-carbon energy markets. In June 2021 the company announced a pair of investments in Sage Geosystems and GeoX Energy. Nabors says 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.
“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,” said Nabors Chairman, President and CEO Anthony G. Petrello. “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 digitalization technologies, Nabors intends to become a key player in the upcoming expansion of geothermal energy.”
“We welcome Nabors not only as an investor but also as a strategic partner,” said GA Drilling Founder and CEO Igor Kočiš. “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’.”
GA Drilling holds 23 registered patents, has received some 20 EU research grants, and currently has strategic technology development partnerships with drilling industry leaders from Europe, the U.S, and Asia. The company has been active in the European Union Horizon Program for disruptive innovation, in cross-border and national projects, and in projects backed by EU Structural Funds.
