Damage and Repair of Puna Well KS-14

KS-14 was the most productive well in the Puna Geothermal Field but in May 2018 the Kilauea eruption caused extensive damage to the well. At the beginning of the eruption the wellhead pressure increased to 1840 psig and was reduced by pumping heavy mud into the well. After the eruption ended and access was restored, a rig moved onto the well and cleaned out the mud but found damaged casing in the area of an active fault. The casing damage was repaired with a cemented liner, but the well was unintentionally sidetracked below the liner. The subsequent redrill encountered a sealed fault where the high productivity zone fault used to be, so drilling continued deeper across the fracture zone to a new production target zone where the well was completed and returned to service.