ThinkGeoEnergy – Geothermal Energy News

KenGen reports 33 MW well pad with 3 wells in Olkaria

KenGen strucks 33 MW in capacity at one single well pad with three wells drilled at the Olkaria geothermal field.

Reported today from Kenya, KenGen reports having successfully drilled three wells on one single wellpad with an overall output of 33 MW.

“Drilling fewer wells with higher output will see the company make savings running into millions of dollars. “The multi-well pad drilling approach reduces drilling costs. We drilled two directional wells and one straight well and when we tested the wells, their output is up to 33 MW,” said Geothermal Development director Eng. Abel Rotich.

“It is not every day that we strike 33MW from a single pad. The normal average capacity from one well is 5MW. This means that we needed up to 6 wells to attain similar capacity. We have literally saved half of the drilling costs for 30MW with this single pad,” added Eng. Rotich.

The wells will be connected to the proposed 140MW Olkaria V project- KenGen’s next ambitious project which is set to break ground before end of this year. “This development means that we have guaranteed up to 22 percent of steam towards the financing of the project. We are currently negotiating with the project’s consultants to hasten the progress of tendering for the EPC Contractors while funding is also being discussed with various development partners,” he said.

“The new well-pad, which is among the biggest in the country, firmly positions Kenya as a major geothermal power producer globally and helps to meet Kenya’s growing demand for electricity as the country implements the Vision 2030 of becoming an industrialized economy.”

To accelerate its geothermal power production programme, KenGen has also resorted to mobile wellhead plants which are faster to deploy. Fourteen such wellheads are expected to be complete by 2016. To this end, a transmission line connecting a new well head Unit 914 has been completed paving the way for injection of a further 27MW from the wellhead units.”

Source: CapitalFM

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