[XorNot]

The oil companies rebranded themselves as energy companies because they're definitely not stupid: if they can take their existing capability and use that to enter a whole new area, they'll do it.

In particular because there's no actual competition between geothermal power and the petrochemical industry: oil is far and away a transportation fuel (and a bunch of other vital things), whereas stationary power is coal-generation.

If they can take drilling expertise and turn it into a geothermal power concern cost efficiently, then they'll do that.

[pfdietz]

In the US, stationary power is more natural gas than it is coal. The ratio is nearly 2:1.