IADC Geothermal Drilling 2026 Conference & Exhibition

07:30 Conference Registration, Coffee Service, Poster Session & Open Exhibition – Sponsored by H&P

08:30 Welcome, Introduction & Safety Briefing: Lars Nydahl Jørgensen, Regional Director Europe, IADC

08:40 Opening Presentation: tbn

09:00 Keynote Presentation: Claus Hemmingsen, Chairperson of the Board, Innargi

09:20 Geothermal Market Outlook: Henning Bjørvik, Partner, Head of Renewables Research, Rystad Energy

09:50 Featured Presentation: Challenges in SHR Geothermal: Bruce Gatherer, Business Development and Drilling Advisor, Iceland Drilling

10:20 Networking Break, Poster Session & Open Exhibition – Sponsored by H&P

10:50 Knowledge Gap in Geothermal Well Control
Moderator: Toney Deer, Director of Training, Well Control School

• Bruce Gatherer, Business Development and Drilling Advisor, Iceland Drilling
• Kevin Gray, Director, Black Reiver Consulting
• Darryl Krobel, Risk Engineer, Starr Insurance
• Chuck Wright, Corporate R&D Manager, NOV

11:50 Exhibitor Showcase – Exhibitors will present their products/services in a 60-second presentation.

12:10 Luncheon, Poster Session & Open Exhibition

13:30 Well Design
Session chair: Douglas Gourlay, Senior Drilling Engineering Advisor, H&P

Are Oil & Gas Integrity Standards Fit for European Geothermal Wells?: Steve Nas, Senior Well Engineering Consultant, Apex Wells
As geothermal development accelerates across Europe, wells are being designed using integrity standards originally developed for the oil and gas industry. But are these standards being applied within their true limits? This presentation challenges conventional thinking by examining how corrosion, thermal cycling, reservoir cooling, and decades-long operating lives fundamentally change well integrity behaviour in geothermal systems. Drawing on lessons from Dutch geothermal doublets and wider European experience, it explores whether current design approaches adequately address long-term degradation and future abandonment requirements. The session will introduce a practical degradation-based integrity framework and discuss what operators, regulators, and engineers must do to avoid creating tomorrow’s integrity liabilities during today’s geothermal expansion.

Mitigating Drill-Out Requirements and Cementing Uncertainty in High-Temperature, Low-pH Geothermal Wells: Joven John Cayao, Technical Solutions Advisor, Welltec
This technical presentation outlines a comprehensive approach to overcoming well integrity issues in high-temperature, acidic geothermal wells. The study examined limitations of traditional drillable plug methods, particularly risks related to drill-out operations, trapped annular fluids, and unreliable cement isolation under extreme thermal cycling. To address these challenges, a stage-cementing technology combined with a specialized high-temperature metal expandable packer and engineered valve block system were implemented to reduce annular pressure buildup, and improve long-term well integrity, ultimately extending geothermal well life while minimizing remediation and operational risks.

Robust Geothermal Well Design in a Low Margin Environment: Michael Cowling, Drilling Manager Denmark/Germany, Innargi
This presentation explores the unique challenges and opportunities of designing conventional low-enthalpy geothermal wells in a low-margin environment, with large scale in mind. Drawing on oil and gas experience and structure, it examines how Innargi balances cost, risk and robustness, while maintaining a long-term vision. Design standardization and simplicity are the bedrock for repeatability and an optimized supply chain. However, opportunities lie where simplicity and innovation overlap: working in this space has solidified well designs and will continue to drive improvement through drilling and facility operations feedback loops.

Mitigating Lost Circulation to Ensure Long-term Well Integrity in High-Temperature Fractured Reservoirs: Sergio Borges, International MPD Project Manager & Drilling Engineer, Gabriel Houng, Justin Baker, Beyond Energy Services & Technology Corp.
Geothermal drilling in fractured, high-temperature reservoirs experiences sever lost circulation, threatening wellbore stability, complicating hydrostatic column control and preventing effective primary cementing. Inadequate cement support can lead to casing fatigue, and long-term well integrity failures. Conventional mitigation methods frequently prove ineffective in large fracture networks. This work explores the application of MPD, using RCDs and automated choke systems to precisely manage bottom-hole pressure, manage fluid, losses, minimize formation fluid influx, maintain wellbore stability, and improve cementing for long-term well integrity. 

14:50 Networking Break, Poster Session & Open Exhibition – Sponsored by H&P

15:20 Drill the First Terawatt of Geothermal to Power the AI Buildout: Dani Merino-Garcia, Vice President Research, Project InnerSpace
AI compute is disrupting energy supply, opening a pull for dispatchable baseload. Geothermal is unparalleled in its offer: drillable today, sited where the load is, and grounded in a proven oil-and-gas workforce and technology. This session walks through the main barriers for growth to TW scale and InnerSpace initiatives to break them: from prospective resource mapping with GeoMap to capital-markets legibility through a PRMS-like resource framework, the session will lay out where finance, technology, industrial, and policy levers compound fastest in the next five years.

15:40 Bit Design
Session chair: Andreas Karkossa, Rig Manager Europe, H&P

Solving the Mystery of Early ROP Loss in Granite: A Key Performance Barrier in Hard Rock Geothermal Drilling: Tom Roberts, Vice President – Technology Development, NOV ReedHycalog
Granite drilling for geothermal wells often shows high initial ROP followed by rapid decline, even when PDC cutters show only minor wear. This presentation examines why small wear flats can cause a disproportionate loss of efficiency in ultra-hard crystalline rock. Combining field observations with pressurized single-cutter laboratory testing, it explains the cutter-rock interaction mechanisms behind early ROP loss and highlights how this understanding can guide improved cutter designs and drilling strategies for lower-cost geothermal well construction.

Improve PDC Drill Bits to Reduce Well Construction Time and Cost: Tony Pink, Director, Pink Granite Consulting
PDC Drill bits have enabled huge jumps in performance on Geothermal wells over the last 5 years. With the introduction of shaped cutters and optimised drilling parameters we saw large Rate of Penetration improvements on the FORGE project in Granite. In 2025 Mazama energy delivered improvements greater than 300% through challenging interbedded volcanics. What is next? Is it materials science is it improved drilling optimization processes or is it using a hybrid approach with super cooled fluid. This session will look at the options and opportunities.

Optimized Dull Grading with grA+de Autonomous Dull Bit Forensic Digitization System: Séan Emery, Global Business Manager, Trax Electronics, Per Erik Berger, APIteq
This presentation examines how AI-enabled dull-bit digitization can address a critical forensic data gap in high-temperature geothermal drilling. Geothermal wells expose PDC bits to hotter, harder, more abrasive, fractured, and thermally aggressive formations, where cutter wear, impact damage, thermal degradation, and drilling dysfunction can be difficult to distinguish through visual dull grading alone. grA+de captures repeatable cutter-by-cutter evidence to support geothermal-specific dysfunction diagnosis, bit design improvement, drilling parameter optimization, and more consistent learning loops across operators, manufacturers, contractors, and service providers.

16:40 Poster Presentations 
Session chair: Kevin Gray, Director, Black Reiver Consulting

Coiled Tubing and High Temperature Geothermal Wells: Kevin Elliott, Product Line Director, NOV

Bridging the Geomechanics Data Gap in Horizontal Geothermal Drilling: Qiuliang Yao, Rock Physics Lead, Teverra

Production Casing Collapse due to Poor Spec and Procedures: Sam Abraham, Global Technical Advisor – Low Carbon Solutions – Geothermal, Halliburton

Survey Integrity for Geothermal Well Intersections: When Corrected Surveys Disagree with Ranging Truth: Ryan Gunter, Director of Operations, SuperiorQC

17:00-18.00 Welcoming Reception, Open Exhibition & Poster Session

07:30 Conference Registration, Coffee Service, Poster Session & Open Exhibition

08:30 Welcome, Introduction & Safety Briefing: Lars Nydahl Jorgensen, Regional Director Europe, IADC

08:40 Keynote Presentation: Florian Sieber, Vice President Low Carbon Business, OMV

09:00 Presentation: tbn

09:20 Geothermal Guidelines Update: Douglas Gourlay, Senior Drilling Engineering Advisor, H&P

09:40 Featured Presentation: Urban Geothermal Drilling: Enabling the Energy Transition with the CityRig 500t: Timo Trauth, Business Development Manager, Herrenknecht Vertical

10:00 Networking Break, Poster Session & Open Exhibition

10:30 Superhot Rock 
Session chair: Steve Nas, Senior Well Engineering Consultant, Apex Wells

Drill Strings for 540°C Superhot Geothermal: Can Today’s Designs Go the Distance?: Gregory Walz, Senior Technical Advisor, ALTISS Technologies
Superhot geothermal horizontal wells at 540 °C (1,004 °F) push drill strings designs to the thermal, fatigue, and buckling limits of conventional steel, particularly as laterals and deviated sections lengthen. This presentation examines how hybrid titanium and steel strings can extend the practical reach envelope into superhot service. It draws on titanium’s lower buoyed weight, reduced bending moment, vibration damping, and demonstrated fatigue performance, combined with thermal conductivity data from 120–500 °C, to frame the challenges.

The Next Frontier: Unlocking Superhot Rock with High Temperature Robotics: John Clegg, Chief Technology Officer, Hephae Energy Technology
Accessing superhot rock geothermal presents significant technical challenges. Current drilling systems use electronics that cannot operate above 200°C. Increasing temperature capability to operate in these extreme conditions is an essential enabler for drilling deep, higher temperature geothermal wells to unlock superhot rock resources. The barrier has now been broken, with advances in high temperature electronics that extend the operating range of directional drilling tools beyond the 200°C limit. This marks a step change, enabling the economic drilling of deeper, hotter wells.

Existing and Emerging Technology for Ultra-hot Rock Drilling: Tony Pink, Director, Pink Granite Consulting
The presentation will cover a broad range of technologies that have been developed or are being developed to solve the main challenges of drilling and completing SHR Geothermal wells. Those challenges are: ROP Generation, Temperature Management, High temperature well integrity (Cement and Casing) and stimulation and completion. The deck will highlight the challenge and the latest innovations that are solving those challenges.

11:30 Case Studies 
Session chair: Douglas Stephens, Senior Vice President Corporate Development, Patterson UTI- Ulterra Drilling Technologies

Making Co Axial Geothermal Competitive: Long Laterals, Minimal Heat Loss, Maximum Output: Camille Hanna, Vice President Drilling, Green Therma & Ron Klunder, Country Manager Europe – North Africa, H&P

Bańska PGP-4: From World-Record Ambition to One of the World’s Deepest Geothermal Wells: Dmitrii Reshitniak, Account Manager – CEE&CIS, NOV

12:10 Luncheon, Open Exhibition & Poster Session

13:30 Cutting Through the Red Tape: How Permitting Shapes Geothermal Deployment 
Moderator: Lars Nydahl Jorgensen, Regional Director Europe, IADC
Regulatory permitting is widely recognized as one of the most significant non‑technical barriers to geothermal development, though its impact varies markedly across regions. Multi‑layered environmental reviews, overlapping approvals, and slow interagency coordination routinely extend project timelines and inflate costs. This panel brings together experts from several countries to examine how these bottlenecks arise, why they differ geographically, and what practical reforms can streamline permitting. The discussion will highlight actionable pathways to reduce delays and accelerate responsible geothermal deployment.

• Sanjeev Kumar, Policy Director, EGEC

14:30 Economic Viability 
Moderator: Mark Hodder, Principal Drilling Engineer, Eavor Technologies

• Simone Bez, Drilling Engineer, Saipem S.p.A.
• Harits Alkatiri, Project Manager, Drees & Sommer SE

15:30 Adjournment

Poster Session & Unassigned Papers of Note

The following paper proposals are presented as posters and will be included in the conference if a scheduled paper becomes unavailable. In addition, these presentations will be made available in the IADC conference proceedings, should the author so desire.

Coiled Tubing and High Temperature Geothermal Wells: Kevin Elliott, Product Line Director, Quality Tubing
Coiled tubing (CT) is increasingly being considered for geothermal drilling and intervention applications, where operating temperatures can exceed 500°C—far beyond traditional oil and gas service conditions. This poster examines the effects of elevated temperature exposure on CT mechanical properties, including strength degradation, thermal damage, corrosion, and embrittlement risks. Laboratory testing and industry experience are used to evaluate performance across multiple CT grades and identify key considerations for geothermal service. The findings are intended to spur discussion and support further use of coiled tubing in geothermal applications.

Bridging the Geomechanics Data Gap in Horizontal Geothermal Drilling: Qiuliang Yao, Rock Physics Lead, Teverra

Survey Integrity for Geothermal Well Intersections: When Corrected Surveys Disagree with Ranging Truth: Ryan Gunter, Director of Operations, SuperiorQC

Production Casing Collapse due to Poor Spec and Procedures: Takele Bitew, Senior Drilling Engineer-Business Developer, Ethiopian Electric Power Co