Page 15 - AfrOil Week 27 2021

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

Gasmeth will use an offshore platform to extract methane from Lake Kivu (Image: Gasmeth)

Rwandan MPs authorise funding

for 2-D seismic survey of Lake Kivu

RWANDA RWANDA’S Chamber of Deputies has agreed to earlier this year that it might be able to start
make funding available for an oil and gas explo- producing methane quickly enough to begin
ration project that is running behind schedule. turning out CNG by the end of 2022. Under a
According to Omar Munyaneza, the chair- $400mn concession agreement signed with the
man of the legislature’s Committee on National Rwandan government in 2019, Gasmeth has the
Budget and Patrimony, the Chamber of Dep- right to extract up to 40mn cubic feet (1.13mn
uties has given the nod to the budget pro- cubic metres) per day of methane from Lake
posed by Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Kivu and to build onshore gas-processing and
Board (RMB). This will make RWF1.038bn compression facilities to produce CNG.
($1.035mn) available for the project, which will Stephen Tierney, Gasmeth’s CEO, has
involve the collection of 2-D seismic data from asserted that CNG production will give Rwan-
the lakebed, he was quoted as saying last week by dans access to a fuel that is better than firewood
The New Times. or charcoal. He has also said he expects that
Munyaneza did not say when RMB would “approximately half” of the company’s future
receive the funds. The board had said previously production will be used as cooking fuel.
that it hoped to launch a 2-D seismic survey of Rwandan authorities have been encouraging
Lake Kivu in June 2021, but its schedule has been local consumers to treat CNG and LPG as cook-
disrupted – partly by the coronavirus (COVID- ing fuel instead of solid fuels such as charcoal
19) pandemic and partly by budget constraints. and firewood, which are more polluting and
The agency is hoping to begin gathering seismic more dangerous.
data in the near future, said Vital Karangwa, Officials in Kigali believe that Gasmeth’s
RMB’s head of communications. CNG could allow 300,000-400,000 households
The board hopes that the 2-D survey will to phase out the use of charcoal and firewood.
support plans by Gasmeth, a special-purpose However, they have also highlighted other pos-
vehicle formed by several investors with expe- sibilities, such as using CNG as a substitute for
rience in Rwanda’s energy sector, for extracting gasoline or diesel fuel or burning it in generators
methane from Lake Kivu. The company said for industrial use. ™

Week 27 07•July•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P15