KenGen MD Rebecca Miano. FILE PHOTO | NMG Kenya Electricity Generating Company #ticker:KEGN (KenGen) is in contention for another multi-billion geothermal wells project in Ethiopia in what could mark the third win in the landlocked country in under two years.
The Kenyan firm is among seven that have won the first round of call for tenders to drill wells for a 150 Megawatts (MW) geothermal steam power plant in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.
Corbetti Geothermal—the company that is developing the Corbetti geothermal project in Ethiopia—received final bids from the seven firms last month and is expected to pick the winner soon.
The results for the initial call, which have been published by Corbetti shows that KenGen will be competing with Great Wall Drilling Company, Grey Wolf Drilling, Iceland Drilling Company, Marriot Drilling, Schlumberger and a consortium of Baker Hughes-Tsavo Oilfield Services and Parker Drilling.
KenGen is already working on two geothermal contracts in the Horn of Africa country.
The firm, in February 2019, won part of a Sh7.6 billion contract to supply geothermal drilling services to the Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP).
This was followed up with a Sh5.2 billion tender from Tulu Moye Geothermal Operations Plc—an independent power producer located in the eastern region of Ethiopia— to drill wells and offer geo-scientific survey.
Earlier announcement by Corbetti had shown that it expects an agreement for the geothermal wells to be reached and signed shortly after New Year to allow drilling to start in early in the year.
The selected firm will be responsible for drilling three geothermal exploration wells and up to 26 production wells.
The project will be developed in two faces split between 50 MW and 100 MW.
It was not immediately clear how much Corbetti plans to spend on the 150MW. The entire project was estimated to go up to 1,000MW and cost Sh438 billion ($4 billion).KenGen has close to four decades of experience in steam power and runs several geothermal stations in Kenya, with Olkaria I power station being the first geothermal power plant in Africa.
