The firm signed an agreement to the effect with the government through Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board (RMB) and Rwanda Development Board (RDB).
According to the terms of the contract, Gasmeth Energy will finance, construct and maintain a gas extraction, processing and compression project at the lake where by the compressed natural gas will significantly boost the East African country’s energy output.
According to an official statement issued in Kigali, the investment is also projected to create project employment for between 600-800 people during the construction phase and 400 employees after construction.
Commenting on the new move, the chief executive officer of Rwanda Development Board (RDB) Clare Akamanzi stressed that natural gas is the most environmentally friendly fossil fuel and will help reduce the use of wood and charcoal as a cooking fuel as well as diesel fuel in the automotive industry.
““The deep water of Lake Kivu contains dissolved methane and carbon dioxide. These gases pose a serious risk to all the oxygen dependent life in the vicinity of the lake as they continue to build up,” she said.
It said that Gasmeth Energy was currently the latest private player in the energy sector, particularly in the production of methane gas in Lake Kivu.
Symbion Power, an energy development company which entered a concession agreement with the Rwandan government since 2017, separately owns Kibuye Power (KP1) and Lake Kivu 56 projects.
Lake Kivu, which straddles the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, covers an area of about 2,700 square kilometres (1,040 square miles), divided roughly equally between the two countries.
According to a 2010 Rwandan government study, the lake contains some 55 billion cubic metres of methane gas, trapped at the bottom of the lake by the pressure of the water above.
That volume of gas, if burned, could produce enough energy to power much of Rwanda for close to 70 years, experts predict.