Page 9 - AfrElec Week 36

AfrElec GAS-FIRED GENERATION AfrElec

with the reforms enacted in 2014. of the country’s total electricity output.
Those reforms were designed to encourage Perenco has been active in the DRC since
outside investors to build and acquire TPPs and 2001 and is now the operator of several off-
other generating facilities, such as solar farms shore assets: Emeraude, Likouala, PNGF South,
and hydroelectric power plants (HPPs), in the Yombo and Masseko. It is using the La Noumbi
DRC. So far, though, they have had limited floating production, storage and off-loading
success. As of press time, the national power (FPSO) vessel to develop the latter two fields. ™
provider, state-owned Société Nationale d’Elec-
tricité (SNE), still accounted for no less than 94%

USTDA grants Senegal $1.3mn

for gas pipeline study

SENEGAL THE US Trade and Development Agency Abrajano made similar points. “This pipeline
(USTDA) has pledged to provide the govern- will become the backbone of Senegal’s domestic
ment of Senegal with funding for the study of a gas sector and [will] help create the infrastruc-
natural gas pipeline project. ture to supply the country’s power plants and
In a statement, USTDA said that it had transform its energy sector,” he said. “US com-
agreed to cover the cost of the study with a grant panies are eager to partner with Senegal on this
worth nearly $1.3mn. It also reported that it had opportunity, and we intend to make a meaning-
marked the signing of an agreement on the grant ful difference in the lives of millions of Senega-
on August 28 with a virtual ceremony attended lese by reducing power generation costs by up
by its chief operating officer Todd Abrajano and to 50%.”
US Ambassador to Senegal Tulinabo Mushingi. For his part, Diallo said that the grant and the
Also in attendance were Senegal’s Minister of study would help make the case for the pipeline.
Petroleum and Energy Mouhamadou Makhtar “This grant from USTDA will help us define the
Cisse and Papa Demba Diallo, the CEO of Sen- technical specifications and economic aspects
egal’s sovereign wealth fund, Fonds Souverain of this very strategic project for our country and
d’Investissements Stratégiques (FONSIS). thus allow us to accelerate its implementation,”
Senegal intends to use the grant to assess the he said.
feasibility of plans to build the country’s first The project will also bolster Senegal’s econ-
major onshore gas pipeline, USTDA noted. omy and benefit local consumers, Diallo
In turn, the study is expected to help FONSIS asserted. “[This] is a strategic project that will
attract funding for the construction of the pipe- accelerate the use of gas, especially in electricity
line, which will carry gas from Senegal’s offshore production, and contribute to lowering the cost
fields, it said. of electricity,” he stated. “This will help spur Sen-
“Specifically, the feasibility study will recom- egal’s industrial sector and make our companies
mend a final pipeline route, finalise technical more competitive.” ™
specifications for each segment of the pipeline
and define the technical requirements for the
front-end engineering and design [FEED] phase
of the project,” the agency said in its statement.
“The study will also verify [Senegalese domestic]
gas demand and provide updated economic and
financial analysis.”
Senegal’s government hopes that this pipe-
line will support the country’s power-generating
industry by underpinning domestic demand for
cleaner-burning and lower-cost fuel, USTDA
said. Mushingi stressed this point, saying that the
project would “help Senegal transition its elec-
tricity generation to clean, inexpensive natural
gas, using its own energy resources.”

Week 36 10•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9