Cooking gas costs to reduce early next year; Electrogaz

BY GEORGE KAGAME

Early next year, government is set to introduce incentives for importers of cooking gas and reduce its levies on the product so that many Rwandans are able to afford it.

This was was revealed by John Mirenge the Managing Director of Electrogaz, the national energy supplying agency while speaking to journalists in his office. Gas is considered by many experts to be the most efficient and low cost cooking energy but its prices in Rwanda are far too high compared to prices in regional countries like Tanzania and Uganda. Most Rwandans however are not aware of the effectiveness of cooking gass and those that know cannot afford it as it is beyond the affordability of many. A 6kg can of cooking gas at Kobil Petrol stations costs Frw 75000 while a 12kg can costs Frw 85000 in Nakumatt mall. The same cans are sold at 64 and 153 USD respectively in neighbouring Tanzania and cheaper in Uganda.

Mirenge said government will early next year introduce a scheme to encourage and support gas importers in the country such its cost to the last consumer in Rwanda reduces. He did not offer any details however regarding the actual incentives but said the package was being handled by the Ministry of Energy and Natural resources and would be released at the beginning of the year. Furthermore Mirenge said that government had earmarked 8 mini hydro electricity projects and construction works were already underway for some while many will start in January 2009. Efforts to get a comment for Eng Albert Butare the state minister for energy were futile.

"Soon consumers will be relieved, government will introduce incentives on LPG (cooking gas), we are trying to reduce dependence on charcoal as this is very costly to the environment and we do not have enough electricity to cater for most energy requirements in the country."

Mirenge also said that Rwandans would have to wait a little longer to begin enjoying the benefits of methane gas whose extraction began in November 2008 on Lake Kivu; "the equipment at Gisenyi pilot plant is only capable of producing 5 megawatts of electricity but because of the limited machinery we have currently it is only able to produce 1.5 megawatts." He said that the investors in the gas project are expanding the plant so that it can produce to its maximum but added that the extensions would be completed by 2011.
Till then, the national energy requirements are being met by thermal generators which are very expensive as their daily costs is estimated at 2M USD.

In a telephone interview, Alex Kabuto he Director General of the methane gas extraction pilot plant in Gisenyi said that they are currently supplying Gisenyi town with 2 mega watts of electricity but added that Contour Global the American firm in charge of extraction was acquiring and installing new machinery and would soon increase output to between "50-100 mega watts."
Experts say that if the project succeeds it has capacity to deliver 350 mega watts which would solve most energy problems in Rwanda. The national energy requirements are stretched enough already yet only less than 10 percent of the population remains with access to hydro electricity.

Kabuto said that currently the extraction is very expensive "because we have been renting the machinery but we are soon buying our own machinery. Within the next two years we will be able to stop depending on the diesel generators for electricity and supplement national energy requirements with this methane gas." Kabuto said the national budget will be relieved of alot foreign expenditure on diesel when the methane gas plant is expanded.
Methane gas has long been considered as the solution of Rwanda energy requirements, exploration works on the lake began in 1963 by a Belgian company. Today, the International Finance Corporation with other donors are financing the project in Gisenyi.