Drilling firms pre-qualify for geothermal work in Djibouti
Lake Assal, Djibouti (source: Fishercd, commons Wikimedia)
Alexander Richter
30 Apr 2015
Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Inc., Turkish Petroleum Corp. and Exalo Drilling SA of Poland have pre-qualified to drill geothermal wells in Djibouti.
Djibouti is in dire need of power, not only for its citizens, but to also to develop its economy. Current energy generation systems cannot keep up with demand, reach a significant amount of the population or are too expensive.
Geothermal energy can be a good solution to all of these problems and several instances have been made to develop projects in the country.
Geothermal development seems to be moving forward and now “Companies including Houston, Texas-based Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Inc., state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corp. and Exalo Drilling SA of Poland have pre-qualified to drill wells in the country, Saida Omar Abdillahi, director of energy conservation in the Energy Ministry, said by e-mail.” according to a Bloomberg.
This same source states that now there is also the financial commitment to take this projects into development: “We have political stability, technology has been modernized to deal with the high salinity of the water. We also have lots of investors from the U.S., Japan, Australia and Italy interested in helping us.” the country’s Energy Minister Ali Yacoub Mahamoud says.
Source: Bloomberg Business
