Steamfield work progressing on Olkaria project in Kenya
Work on pipes at Olkaria, Kenya (source: flickr/ lydurs, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
8 May 2013
Contractor Sinopec expects to finalize work on its steamfield work for the 280 MW Olkaria development on schedule in April 2014.
Kenyan news report on the progress of the geothermal development at Olkaria, a new geothermal project in two plants of each 140 MW.
Chinese oil company Sinopec International started construction on the Sh 11.5 ($140 million) part of the project in December 2012. The company is constructing the steamfield for the power plant and has so far laid about 10 percent of an overall expected pipeline system of 100 km.
“At present, construction work is ongoing to connect all the steam wells to the geothermal power station, work that will be completed by April 2014,” said Sinopec International Petroleum Service Corp. deputy director Hung Guo.
Sinopec has since December 2012 been putting up steam pipes and related systems to deliver steam from geothermal wells to Olkaria-1’s Unit-4 and Unit-5 and Olkaria-4 Power plants, each with a capacity of 140MW.
“There are around 100km of pipeline and we have now finished about 10km. There are a total of around 8,000 pipe supports, and we have now finished around 3000,” said Mr Guo.
Sinopec won the Sh 11.5 billion ($135 million) contract last year.
There have been rather challenges for the construction work, among them the poor state of the roads and clearing construction materials from the port of Mombasa.
In order to compensate for the delay through these challenges, Sinopec has now extended working hours to cater to the delays and remain within the completion date of April next year.”
Source: Business Daily
