HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0825.053 2010-2012 Page 1 of 1
SILL 26-r 2_
Murashige, Laura
From: Louis Capuano [LCapuano @capuanoengineering.com]
•
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2012 1:11 PM -
To: 'counciltestimony @co.hawaii.hi.us'
Subject: Comments on new law limiting drilling to daylight hours only
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen;
My name is Louis E. Capuano,Jr. and I have been a drilling engineer for over 40 years specializing in
geothermal well drilling for the last 35 years. I have read your new proposed law that would limit
drilling to only daylight hours. This new law would greatly affect the development of geothermal
energy. To limit drilling to only daylight hour does not simply double the drilling time to complete a
well, it more than doubles the time required to complete the well. At the end of a daylight period the
rig crews must start to prepare the rig to shut down for night and in the morning they have to restart
everything. Plus if they are on bottom drilling at the time to shut down they would have to pull the bit
and tools out of the hole to secure the rig for night. Therefore if limited to daylight hours a rig may only
get 9 to 10 hours a day of actual productive time. Using this calculation if a well usually takes 60 days to
completed drilling on a 24 hours per day basis the new time to complete based on 9 to 10 hours a day
would require nearly 151 days to complete. This means that we will have people on the roads for an
additional 91 days as well as equipment,tools and materials moving in and out for a longer time
period. As well the operations will continue during the daylight operation,therefore things will be the
same during the operating periods. The economics of the project would also be greatly affected. The
economics may prove to be sub-commercial and the developments will stop. I certainly hope this is not
the reason for this law,to limit geothermal development. Geothermal energy is a great indigenous form
of renewal energy that is a base load contributor to the energy mix. In this time we need to develop all
forms of indigenous energy to limit the flow of dollars outside the U.S. I would hate to see geothermal
development limited in this way.
I urge you to consider this law in what it is trying to do and please continue to allow the drilling to go
forward on a 24 hours per day basis.
Louis E Capuano Jr. I President/CEO
CAPUANO
ENGINEERING
CoPAr
2455 Bennett Valley Rd. Suite A112, Santa Rosa, CA 95404
DD: 707-595-8742 'Cell: 707-484-6831 I Fax: 707-544-4127 Office: 707-595-8740
LCapuano @capuanoengineering.com I www.capuanoengineering.com
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11/1/2012