Excerpts:
Recent assessment of the hydrocarbon potential of Ogaden
Basin was included
in the study made by Alconsult International Ltd. on
behalf of the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA). The study is
part of a larger study,
the East Africa Regional Hydrocarbon Study which
involves the participation
of Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique,
Seychelles, South
Africa and Tanzania. The assessment proved that the
Ogaden basin is a
reasonably prospective area for petroleum resources.
Ethiopia: Oil And Gas Industry
Overview
Ethiopia is endowed with energy resources such as coal,
biomass, solar energy
and natural gas and is not a great consumer of petroleum
fuels. Current
natural gas reserves are estimated to be 24 million
cubic metres.
95% of the energy consumed in Ethiopia is derived from
traditional energy
resources. The balance is made up of electricity and oil
products. Less than
4% of the population, however, is supplied with
electricity. Consumption of
liquid fuel products, in 1997, according to the US
Department of Energy was
approximately 550 000 metric tons.
The industry is regulated by the Ministry of Mines and
Energy. The Ethiopian
National Committee (ENEC) was established to deal with
issues related to the
energy sector and to assist in policy making and setting
of priorities. ENEC
operates through the Ministry of Mines and Energy as a
planning secretariat.
Energy parastatals and the agencies established for
geothermal and petroleum
exploration report to the Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry or to the
Minister directly. His Excellency, Izaddin Ali Zikeh is
presently the
Minister of Mines and Energy.
Petroleum legislation was promulgated in 1986.
Upstream
The resource potential of petroleum and other types of
energy appears to be
highly promising. The Ethiopian government has selected
potential petroleum
development areas and these have been made open for
private investment.
In these areas, some geological exploration has been
carried out and there
are indications of the occurrence of oil and gas. In
1974 Tenneco made a
discovery in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia with
estimated reserves of
2.4
billion cubic feet of natural gas.
Recent assessment of the hydrocarbon potential of Ogaden
Basin was included
in the study made by Alconsult International Ltd. on
behalf of the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA). The study is
part of a larger study,
the East Africa Regional Hydrocarbon Study which
involves the participation
of Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique,
Seychelles, South
Africa and Tanzania. The assessment proved that the
Ogaden basin is a
reasonably prospective area for petroleum resources.
This, the largest sedimentary basin, contains a
commercial discovery in the
form of a gas condensate field,
the Calub Gas
Field and is situated in the
eastern part of the country. The basin has an
area of
350,000 square
kilometres and sedimentary thickness of up to
10,000
meters. The reserve
potential of Calub gas field is proved to be
2.7
TCF and this resource is
under development for production.
In order to exploit these reserves, the Ethiopian
government established the
Calub Gas Share Company (CGSC) with, initially, a large
part of the share
belonging to the government. Now with its serious
interest in involving
private investment in all economic sectors in the
country, the government has
decided to privatize 100 percent of its share and
actions are being taken
towards this end.
In fact, it has been reported that, in December 1999,
the government of
Ethiopia and Sicor of Texas, signed a preliminary
agreement for a venture to
produce natural gas and associated liquids. The project
will be known as the
Gazoil Ethiopia Project ("GEP"), and involves
the acquisition by GEP of two
concessions in the Calub and Hilala areas of the
Ogaden
basin, containing
4
trillion cubic feet of gas and
13.6
million barrels of associated liquids.
GEP will also reportedly acquired approximately 95% of
the Calub Gas Share
Company ("CGSC"). GEP will also construct a
600-kilometer, 24-inch gas
pipeline to transmit gas and associated liquids to
Awash, a town 220
kilometres east of Addis Ababa.
Also in the Ogaden Basin, Ethiopia Hunt Oil, the local
branch of the Canadian
international, Hunt Oil Company, acquired the rights to
the Genale River
concession which borders Somalia and Kenya in 1989.
There is no commercial production of hydrocarbons in
Ethiopia as yet.