Kenya to buy drilling rigs for US$36m
Geothermal drilling rig of ThermaSource, not related to story (source: Canadian-Wellsite.com)
Alexander Richter
27 Mar 2010
Kenya is planning to buy two drilling rigs for $36 million and wants to acquire five more to speed up exploration for steam fields in the country.
Reported from Kenya, the country is planning to buy “two drilling rigs for $36 million and wants to acquire five more to speed up exploration for steam fields that will be used to generate geothermal energy, Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi said.
Private exploration companies have delayed plans to start the costly search for hot water and steam deposits underground, demanding first that the Kenyan government sign agreements to buy the power, Murungi said today at a conference in the capital, Nairobi.
“There are very high front-end costs and the fact is they may drill dry wells,” Murungi said.
It costs $6.3 million to sink a single well, he said. About 26 steam wells have been drilled in the East African nation since geothermal work began in 1996, he said.
Kenya plans to expand geothermal power plants in Olkaria, 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Nairobi, over the next two years, at cost of about $1.4 billion, with the capacity to generate 280 megawatts of electricity.
Kenya currently exploits about 167 megawatts of its geothermal potential of 7,000 megawatts.
The country plans to boost geothermal generation capacity by 4,000 megawatts over the next 20 years, the state-run Geothermal Development Co. said on Nov. 17.”
Source: Business Week
