East Africa new frontier for oil exploration
Thursday, 11 March 2010
HOUSTON, Texas, March 10 (AFP): East Africa has become a promising new frontier for oil exploration and major multinationals are jostling for the rights to search for black gold, industry experts said yesterday.
"There are still large areas which are essentially unexploited and major efforts are needed in East Africa," Tiziana Luzzi-Arbouille, an African specialist with IHS Global Insight said at the CeraWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas.
While the Atlantic coast of Africa-most notably Nigeria and Angola-has long been exploited by western oil companies, it took decades for the industry to turn its sights to the east.
Things changed in 2006 with the first significant discovery in Uganda, in the Lake Albert basin. Since then another 15 sites have been confirmed, said Luzzi-Arbouille, who estimated Uganda's petroleum reserves at around 700 million barrels.
"What happened in Uganda made it easier for smaller companies to raise funding," said Tewodoros Ashenafi, head of Southwest Energy, an Ethiopian company exploring in that country's Ogaden basin.
"Many people were saying: there is nothing in Uganda. Many people are saying, there is nothing in Ethiopia," he told the conference. "In about a year and a half, I'm looking forward to saying I told you so."
Significant natural gas reserves have been discovered in Tanzania and Mozambique. Ethiopia and Somalia are also sites of intense exploration. And Madagascar holds "enormous reserves," Luzzi-Arbouille told AFP in an interview on the sidelines of the conference.
"There are still large areas which are essentially unexploited and major efforts are needed in East Africa," Tiziana Luzzi-Arbouille, an African specialist with IHS Global Insight said at the CeraWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas.
While the Atlantic coast of Africa-most notably Nigeria and Angola-has long been exploited by western oil companies, it took decades for the industry to turn its sights to the east.
Things changed in 2006 with the first significant discovery in Uganda, in the Lake Albert basin. Since then another 15 sites have been confirmed, said Luzzi-Arbouille, who estimated Uganda's petroleum reserves at around 700 million barrels.
"What happened in Uganda made it easier for smaller companies to raise funding," said Tewodoros Ashenafi, head of Southwest Energy, an Ethiopian company exploring in that country's Ogaden basin.
"Many people were saying: there is nothing in Uganda. Many people are saying, there is nothing in Ethiopia," he told the conference. "In about a year and a half, I'm looking forward to saying I told you so."
Significant natural gas reserves have been discovered in Tanzania and Mozambique. Ethiopia and Somalia are also sites of intense exploration. And Madagascar holds "enormous reserves," Luzzi-Arbouille told AFP in an interview on the sidelines of the conference.