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S. AND E. AFRICA

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Brief history of the country

Burundi (the Republic of Burundi) in the Great Lakes region is bordered by Rwanda (north), Tanzania (east), and Congo (Kinshasa) (west). Its southwestern border runs through Lake Tanganyika.

Hunter-gatherers settled in East Africa around 8000 BC. The Twa tribe are descended from the earliest people but the country is now mainly inhabited by Hutus and Tutsis who arrived later.

The Tutsi Kingdom of Burundi was founded around the 16th Century, expanding to compete with Rwanda especially in the first half of the 19th Century. In 1856 Europeans first visited but the Burundian kingdom opposed them and it was not until 1899 that the kingdom was forced to become part of German East Africa.

After Germany’s defeat in World War 1 control was ceded to Belgium who, from 1924, ruled the colony known as Ruanda-Urundi. Following World War 2 it was administered by Belgium who, in 1959, relaxed powers to allow political parties. Driven by the Hutu revolt in Rwanda, Tutsis took overall control and Burundi gained independence in 1962.

A series of coups, 2 civil wars and ethnic conflict, including 2 genocides, has left the country undeveloped and very poor, dependent on subsistence agriculture. In 2004 the UN took over peacekeeping to help the transitional power-sharing government but since elections in 2005 the government has remained authoritarian.

Oil and gas summary

The land-locked country lies in the Great Lakes region of East Africa underlain by metamorphic basement except in the west which forms part of the East African rift.

Burundi consists largely of metamorphosed sandstones and shales of the Burundian Supergroup of Proterozoic age with inliers of basement rocks of Archaean age.

The Western Rift around and northwards of Bujumbura, lies on trend with the oil-bearing Ugandan Albertine Rift. It is partly filled with Cenozoic sediments. Alluvium and lake sediments of Quaternary age outcrop along nearby rivers. Lake Tanganyika, on the country’s western border, occupies the southern half of this rift in Burundi.

Burundi has no history of production. Two wells were drilled in 1987, both dry, but otherwise there has been no oil and gas exploration drilling conducted in the country.

However, recent successes in Uganda to the north could eventually lead to some new exploration activity in the region of Lake Tanganyika and in the Rusizi valley north of Bujumbura but Globalshift does not forecast any production in the short or medium term.

Government

Burundi is a presidential democratic republic. The President is head of state and head of government. Burundi enacted a transitional government in 2000.

The legislative branch is a bicameral assembly, consisting of a 170-member Transitional National Assembly and a 51-member Transitional Senate.

There is no government department in Burundi specifically responsible for oil and gas resources.

Capital (largest city)

Population

Land area (sq kms)

Oil prod (000s b/d)

Gas prod (bcm/yr)

Oil cons (000s b/d)

Gas cons (bcm/yr)

Gitege (Bujumbura)

8.5 mm

27,834