Singapore launches national geothermal survey

Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) has awarded a $16 million contract to urban planning and infrastructure consultancy Surbana Jurong to carry out a national geophysical survey. The project, which will start in the second half of 2024 and run for around two years, aims to assess the country’s geothermal potential. This contract follows a call for tenders launched in September 2023.

Scientific foundations of the study

The geophysical study will draw on data already collected by researchers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), the Technical University of Munich research center at the Singapore Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (TUMCREATE) and Surbana Jurong, near the Sembawang hot spring. Led by Associate Professor Alessandro Romagnoli of NTU, the research team estimates that temperatures could reach up to 200°C at a depth of 4 to 5 kilometers, with measurements of geothermal gradient, granite heat production and heat flux above the global average for non-volcanic regions.

Advances and projections

Recent updates show that the team has already drilled to a depth of 1,700 meters, regularly continuing to take rock samples and measure temperatures at various depths. They plan to continue drilling deeper, in the hope of collecting data that will complement that of the geophysical survey.

Surbana Jurong was selected from among nine companies bidding for the tender. The EMA judged their offer to be the best value for money, although other companies had submitted less expensive bids. Professor Romagnoli highlighted the Singapore government’s support for geothermal development, highlighting the approvals granted for deep exploratory drilling and the extension of land use.