An American based petroleum property analysis and consulting firm, Netherland, Swell & Associates, verified the existence of 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Ogaden area of Ethiopia. The firm conducted a four-month study to issue the finding and handover the first gas reserves certificate to the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum.

According to Takele Uma, the Minister of Mines and Petroleum, efforts are underway to implement the finding. He stated that the study was an assurance of the availability and commerciality of natural gas and crude oil in Ethiopia.

Exploration in the Ogaden Basin which covers an area of 350 thousand square kilometers began in the 1920s. The Calub gas field in the Ogaden region was discovered in 1973 which made it one of the earliest finds in the area.

Two recent discoveries were also made in Dohar and El Kuran, areas in the Ogaden Basin, in addition to the Netherland, Swell & Associates’ finding. The El Kuran discovery was made by a UK company called New Age Mining while Poly-GCL, a Chinese company, made the discovery in Dohar. The petroleum reserve at Dohar which is located between Calub and Hilala is estimated at 3 TCF.

Ethiopia announced in 2019 that it would build a 767KM natural gas pipeline from Calub and Hilala to the port of Djibouti. The construction of the pipeline is expected to begin in the near future.

The website of the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum shows that a quarter of the country has already been mapped with Full Tensor Gravity and 6 known basins that contain hydrocarbon are identified. The Ogaden Basin is one of them.

Sources: Fana BC, Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, Walta Media and Communication and Corporate

Image source: Fana BC