The South West Ethiopia Peoples’ Regional State's Mining and Energy Development Agency has revoked the licenses of 32 gold mining producers in the region during the current fiscal year. The decision follows a monitoring and inspection process that identified poor performance among several licensed operators.
The Southern Sudanese Embassy announced that it issues approximately 100 visas to Ethiopian businesspersons conducting business in Juba. The number of business travelers has increased since Southern Sudanese Independence Day said
David Dang Kong, deputy head of mission with South Sudan embassy.
Southern Sudan gives priority to Ethiopian business aiming to do business in Juba especially in view of the large Ethiopian community residing in Southern Sudan according to Kong.
SouthWest Energy, an Ethiopian oil and gas company, announced the results of the Competent Persons Report (CPR), a study commissioned by the company and prepared by an independent consultant, Senergy (GB) Limited, for the company’s Gambella basin block (an extension of the large oil producing Melut basin in South Sudan) and blocks 9A, 9 and 13 in the Jijiga basin, a part of the Ogaden basin in Ethiopia.
“I am very pleased to announce the results of the CPR by Senergy, which I consider a significant step forward for our company and a strong validation of our work to date,” Tewodros Ashenafi, Chairman and CEO of SouthWest Energy said on the press release on last Thursday.
SouthWest Energy is planning to drill three wells in this year and in 2014 in its Jijiga basin concession on Ethiopia's border with Somalia. The company holds a total of 46,000 square kilometers of exploration acreage.
Tewodros Ashenafi, CEO of SouthWest Energy, a native of Ethiopia and the biggest shareholder in the company, hopes his Ethiopian exploration will become the first indigenous company to make a basin-opening discovery in sub-Saharan Africa's 21st Century oil and gas boom.
Southwest Energy is in the process of negotiations with the Ministry of Mines, Ethiopia to reach to a production sharing 
agreement for the exploration area around Jimma.
The company has been in the process of carrying out a petroleum study on the Jimma concession in collaboration with the Ministry of Mines said Tewdros Ashenafi, Chairman and Chief Executive of Southwest Energy.
Southwest has agreed to take over the Jimma block pending some things that need to be finalized with the ministry he explained.
