Related News

A US small business will use financing from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic) to help Botswana take advantage of its natural gas reserves and thereby meet a growing need for electricity, Opic president and CEO Peter Watson has announced.
Opic will provide an US$8.5mn investment guaranty to Kalahari Gas Corporation, owned in part by Covalent Energy Corporation of Arlington, to finance equipment purchase and the drilling of coal bed methane (CBM) wells located approximately 500m underground in eastern Botswana.
Unlike coal, CBM does not contain particulate pollutants, and its production byproduct, water, can be used for irrigation or industrial process water, thereby replacing potable water used for that purpose. Currently, Botswana has no infrastructure in place for developing CBM, either for extraction or end-use.
Watson notes the substantial developmental benefits of the project for Botswana’s population, only 22% of which has access to electricity.
“Development of a Botswana’s infrastructure, including electricity generation, will be a vital step in its economic development. Opic is pleased to support a US project that will accelerate Botswana’s power generation, and in a way that is both environmentally-friendly and environmentally-efficient,” Watson says.