Kenya will negotiate the import of natural gas from Qatargas to fuel a power station it wants built in the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa, the president’s office said yesterday.
The gas-powered power plant is part of the government’s plans to add 5,000MW to Kenya’s existing 1,664MW generation capacity by 2017 to accelerate economic growth, which is expected to push Kenya’s power demand up to 15,000MW by 2030.
The ministry of energy and petroleum is evaluating bids from investors interested in developing the 700MW-800MW natural gas-fired plant near Mombasa, as well as a 900MW-1,000MW coal-power plant at Lamu.
The announcement was made during a visit by President Uhuru Kenyatta to Qatar.
“The president noted that Kenya Pipeline had already signed a non-disclosure agreement with Qatargas to start negotiation for the supply of 1mn metric tonnes per annum of LNG to Kenya to power the 700-megawatt gas plant in the port city of Mombasa,” Kenyatta’s press office said in a statement.
The statement provided no further details on when the negotiations were expected to start.
