Kigali — The feasibility study of the joint exploitation of methane gas in Lake Kivu by Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo will be ready before June next year.

The European Commission (EC) has accepted to finance the study and the funds should be availed in two months to start the study, Rwanda State Minister for Energy, Dr. Albert Butare said.

The study may cost between $1.5 million and $2 million, said Butare.

He explained that he held a meeting with the Congolese energy minister discussing specifically the joint venture that targets to generate 200 megawatts of energy from methane gas.

"We agreed that what is required to facilitate this project in the first place is to have a comprehensive study that entails three major components," Butare said.

The components include financing mechanisms; the technology to be used when extracting the gas from the lake and changing it into electrical power; and the environmental and social impact assessment of the project. "With those three components you have the project as a comprehensive package which anybody would be ready to come on board in terms of financing for implementation," he said.

The ministers are speeding up the project as requested by President Paul Kagame and President Joseph Kabila in their recent historic meeting held in Goma, eastern Congo.

When the study is completed, the ministers will again sit with donors - European Union, World Bank, AfDB, The Netherlands, US Embassy, and Belgian Cooperation - to discus financing for the project implementation.

Once the joint extraction is finalized, the two countries expect to boost power supply which is a key ingredient for economic development.

Rwanda will raise the current pick from 69MW to 169 MW once power from the joint venture is ready. Currently 6% of the total households in Rwanda have electricity but the target is to reach 16% by 2012, according to government projections.