Tlou Energy races to pioneer Botswana gas

MBONGENI MGUNI
Staff Writer | Wednesday June 19, 2013 00:00

 

The company, which is focused on a 7,000 square metre area in central Botswana, recently became the first gas developer in the country to declare an independently certified resource, at 2.3 trillion cubic feet of Coal Bed Methane (CBM). CBM is one of the 'unconventional' gases Tlou Energy is focused on.Last week, Tlou Energy regional manager (Botswana) Gabaake Gabaake said the company was steaming ahead with developments at its licence with a view to reaching a decision on commercial production within three years. Within the energy sector, two developers, Tlou Energy and Kalahari Sustainable Energy are leading the field in debuting the country's first commercial natural gas project.

'Coal Bed Methane as a solution can be a bit more expensive than coal, but its power stations can be developed more quickly and also built in a modular form, meaning to any size,' Gabaake told delegates at a resource sector conference.'We are moving towards delivering gas to market and there are projects waiting for gas today so we know commercial will not be a problem. We hope that our projects and the other CBM initiatives in the country will be a substitute to the diesel currently being imported for power, as envisaged by the Economic Diversification Drive,' he said.

The Australia Securities Exchange-listed firm and the previous licence holder have spent a collective 40 million Australian Dollars drilling and sampling its prospecting licence in an effort to prove resources. Gabaake said the project had moved to the drilling of two wells, which will be followed by other activities designed to underpin reserve certification.'In gas development, going too fast may actually make you slow because you may make mistakes that end up turning everything over.

We are following a very structured plan from understanding the resource that we are dealing with, then to piloting where we have done trials to determine the potential of the gas flow in the coal and also the gas required for the commercial process. The last step will be work on gas contract and infrastructure,' he explained.The Botswana Power Corporation and other regional users are expected to grab any available commercial gas which carries the advantages of being built to fit required power supplies.The BPC is presently drawing up to 90 megawatts of diesel-fuelled power from the Orapa station at a cost estimated to run into millions of Pula per month. Experts have said converting the station to run on CBM could save up to 60 percent of costs.