Africa Geothermal International Limited to drill first well in Longonot for five years

Africa Geothermal International Limited (AGIL), the energy company based in Kenya, has announced that it will initiate its drilling in Longonot.

The firm will begin drilling its exploration steam well in the valley, situated near Kenya’s capital, in June.

This follows five years of delays, with the company initially announcing its plans to sink wells and build a power plant in 2013.

The power plant was estimated at costing Sh61.8bn (US$600mn), and each well will cost Sh515mn ($5mn) to drill.

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AGIL confirmed their plans to drill up to 40 wells in a bid to generate 140MW of geothermal energy from the steam.

Each well is expected to take about 60 days to sink, as the firm may have to drill as deep as 3.5km.

Chairman of the National Bank of Kenya, Mohammed Hassan, is an AGIL co-director, along with Fred Ojiambo, a lawyer at Kaplan & Stratton and Brian Mitchell.