Rwanda has signed a deal to allow a company to bottle gas from a body of water known as one of Africa’s killer lakes. The project by Gasmeth Energy will involve sucking gas from the floor of Lake Kivu to use as fuel. The lake emits such dense clouds of methane that is it is known as a killer.
The $400m operation by Gasmeth Energy – which is owned by business people from the US, Nigeria and Rwanda – would help to prevent toxic gas bubbling to the surface. Rwanda hopes the increased availability of bottled methane would reduce reliance on wood and charcoal, the fuels used by most households and tea factories in nation of 12 million people.
The country already has two companies that extract gas from Lake Kivu to power electricity plants. The deep waters of Lake Kivu, in the volcanic region on Rwanda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, emit such dense clouds of methane that scientists fear they might erupt, killing people living along the shore. Gasmeth Energy plans to build a gas extraction, processing and compression plant to sell methane in Rwanda and abroad.
