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dam-l Namibia's Kudu Gas moves forward/LS




>This could be good news, if it means Epupa Dam now looks less promising.
>The story appears in "African Energy," a new publication by the Financial
>Times, April 1998:
>
>An estimated $600 million gas fired plant is being prepared by a
>local/international group, which has proposed a 750MW scheme using gas
>from the Kudu field, now being developed by Shell. Bankers told "FTAE"
>[the publication] that market soundings were being taken to assess the
>project's financing potential--which were seen as good given the offtake
>potential.
>
>Shell is expected to take a 25% equity share in the power development,
>which would onsell electricity into the South African grid. The deal
>depends on securing sufficient offtake demand from the South African
>utility Eskom, a 10% shareholder in the scheme. The remaining shareholders
>are NamPower (45%) and the UK's National Power (20%).
>
>Most of Namibia's energy is now imported from South Africa due to the low
>level of the Kunene River and subsequent low capacity of the Ruacana
>hydropower scheme. The 750MW gas-fired plant on the Orange River will
>allow Namibia to meet domestic demand and export electricity.
>
>(the remainder of the article discusses the new power lines to SA, whihc
>are expected to be completed 2010. Leake Hangala, NamPower's managing
>director, said the new lines were "technically superiour" and only
>expected to cause marginal transmission loss compared to an existing level
>of 12%.)
>
>-end-

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      Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
        and Editor, World Rivers Review
           International Rivers Network
              1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
                  Tel. (510) 848 1155   Fax (510) 848 1008
                        http://www.irn.org
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