Page 13 - AfrOil Week 22 2021

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

Tlou Energy set to develop green and blue

“hydrogen strategy” for Lesedi GTP project

BOTSWANA AUSTRALIA’S Tlou Energy hopes that its ammonia for energy storage, fuel cell electric
Lesedi gas-to-power (GTP) project in Botswana vehicles (FCEV), agricultural and medical
will serve as a springboard for blue and green applications.”
hydrogen production. In the meantime, the company is holding
In a statement dated May 28, Tlou said it discussions on a $10mn financing package
intended to develop a “hydrogen strategy” to for the initial stage of the Lesedi GTP project,
complement the GTP scheme. This strategy which will involve the construction of electric-
should be relatively easy to implement, it said, ity transmission lines and substations. Some of
since the company has already secured some of the parties involved in these talks have indicated
the assets and administrative permits it will need that they would prefer to see Tlou sign a 10-MW
to move into hydrogen production. power purchase agreement (PPA) with Bot-
“A hydrogen strategy would benefit from swana Power Corp. (BPC) before proceeding,
Tlou’s extensive approvals secured to date, while others “have not expressed a specific need”
including environmental, gas and solar gener- to take this step beforehand, the statement said.
ation licences, access to land and established Tlou signed an interim PPA with BPC in
in-country operational expertise,” it explained. January of this year, but the agreement only cov-
“Development of hydrogen is planned to run ers the first 2 MW of electricity from the Lesedi
in tandem [with the Lesedi GTP project] and GTP scheme. ™
with time could develop into a lucrative oppor-
tunity for the company, given the availability of
Tlou’s gas and solar power,” it added.
The company went on to say that it would be
able to use its entire resource base to produce
hydrogen. It noted that it had access to “virtually
unlimited” supplies of solar power and coal-bed
methane (CBM) that could be used to generate
the electricity needed to electrolyse water into
hydrogen and oxygen. Additionally, it said,
water is “readily available” within the acreage in
Botswana.
The statement did not reveal how much
hydrogen Tlou hoped to turn out in the future
or when production might begin. It did say,
though, that a move in this direction would
“open multiple additional business opportu-
nities such as solid carbon products, oxygen, CBM and solar power will facilitate hydrogen production (Image: Tlou Energy)

Eni slated to begin exploration

drilling in Lamu Basin in Q4-2021

KENYA ITALY’S Eni is reportedly gearing up to launch programme will target prospects within Blocks
an exploration drilling programme offshore L11A, L11B and L12.
Kenya later this year. In the meantime, Oil News Kenya has
According to the Kenyan press, Eni is slated reported that Eni’s first objective will be the
to begin drilling its first exploration well in the Mlima section of Block L11A. The online news
Lamu basin in November 2021. The Italian com- portal quoted a source as saying last week that
pany has not yet publicly identified the site of the Mlima-1 well might be spudded in Decem-
this first well, but it has indicated that the drilling ber 2021 or January 2022.

Week 22 02•June•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P13