MND’s largest drilling rig to drill a 3.7 km deep gas well

The Bentec 450 is capable of drilling several kilometres deep to explore new gas sources, which MND offers to Czech households as firsthand gas direct from the mine. This is a significant event in the one hundred-year history of research and mining in Moravia.

The Bentec 450 drilling rig will be tasked to drill a 3.7 km deep gas well in Násedlovice within approximately two to three months. The rig workers should be finished by Christmas if the drilling proves to be successful. “We have known about the well in Násedlovice for many years, but we could only start work there this autumn. The projected depth of the well in Násedlovice 2 is 3,756 m but if needed, we can drill even deeper,” said Petr Kopečný, Director of MND Drilling & Services. In the event that the well will be successful, MND will thus contribute towards the gas self-sufficiency of the Czech Republic. The MND Group mines around 100 million m3 of gas each year in Moravia, which covers the gas consumption of approximately 100,000 Czech households at an average of 10 MWh per year.

The MND Group owns three types of Bentec heavy duty drilling rigs, which differ in their capacity. The Bentec 450 is the largest of these. This drilling rig is equipped with the latest technologies to comply with the most stringent EU regulations, emission limits and occupational health and safety requirements. MND purchased the rig in 2013, although it is only now the first drill has started in the Czech Republic. The Bentec 450 was previously used abroad, where MND drilled three wells, all with a depth greater than 6,000 m. The first was the Geretsried 1 geothermal well in Bavaria near Munich, the second named Gapowo 1H was a horizontal well for shale gas in Poland while the Stripfing 1exploration well was drilled for OMV Austria, near Vienna this year. Similar drilling rigs can be seen in Europe, although these are quite rare. MND is the only company in the Czech Republic that owns these types of drilling rigs.

MND Drilling & Services is the largest drilling contractor in the Czech Republic. It offers drilling services within the MND Group as well as to external partners on the European market. Drilling rigs owned by MND have been deployed in all neighbouring countries to date, as well as in Hungary, Romania and Serbia. The company provides comprehensive services during the drilling and equipping of exploration and mining wells for crude oil, natural gas, hydro and geothermal wells and wells for underground gas storage.