Electricity producer KenGen has completed the drilling of geothermal wells in Ethiopia, four at the Aluto-Langano site and three at Tule Moye.
In February 2019, KenGen in a consortium with Shandong Kerui Petroleum Equipment Company and Shandong Kerui Oilfield Service Group won a joint contract worth Sh7.6 billion ($65.7 million) to supply geothermal drilling services to the State-owned Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) company.
The Aluto-Langano project started in July and in November the company completed drilling the second well which became the deepest geothermal well in Ethiopia. It reached a depth of 3,000 metres.
“I must commend our teams on the ground for successfully delivering to expectations despite the threats of COVID-19 and security situation in Ethiopia at the time of project implementation,” KenGen CEO Rebecca Miano said in a statement.
According to KenGen, Kenya is Africa’s number one geothermal energy producer and among the top 10 in the world, with an installed capacity of 863MW. Around 713MW of that is produced by KenGen.
Miano said the power generation company has now embarked on drilling the fifth geothermal well under the EEP project in Aluto-Langano and expects to complete the work in a fortnight’s time.
Miano said the Ethiopian and Djibouti ventures are part of KenGen’s ambitious diversification strategy. The company seeks to acquire new revenue streams by offering commercial drilling services, geothermal consulting and other related services across Africa.
