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S. AND E. AFRICA
Arabica coffee beans
Brief history of the country
Ethiopia (the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia) is land-locked in the Horn of Africa bordering Eritrea (north), Djibouti and Somalia (east), Sudan and South Sudan (west), and Kenya (south).
The first modern humans lived in Ethiopia 200,000 years ago. In 2000 BC a civilisation existed which became the kingdom of D’mt, followed by the Christian Kingdom of Aksum around 100 AD. After the decline of Aksum in 940, a series of dynasties ruled an isolated Abyssinian empire that avoided links with Europe.
From 1755, under the Sultanate of Aussa, the empire was ruled by warlords until 1855 when Britain forged an alliance. The country was reunited although it came under constant attack from Ottoman, Egyptian, and European forces.
Present-day Ethiopia was established in 1889, defeating Italy in 1896. In 1916 Haile Selassie came to power, modernising and becoming emperor in 1930. Italy occupied from 1936 until liberation by the UK in 1941.
In 1953 Ethiopia annexed Eritrea (to 1993). In 1974 a military dictatorship, known as the Derg, took over, backed by the USSR. Civil wars, communist purges and famine devastated the economy until the Derg were removed in 1991.
After a war with Eritrea from 1998 to 2000 the economy began to recover although political unrest has persisted. Since 2018 regional wars have been fought throughout the country.
Oil and gas summary
Most of Ethiopia lies on the Horn of Africa; the easternmost part of the African landmass. The country comprises highlands and dissected plateaus divided by the Great Rift Valley which runs southwest to northeast.
The valley is surrounded by lowlands and steppes with semi-desert along the eastern border of the country. Lake Tana in the north is the source of the Blue Nile.
Ethiopia has a number of sedimentary basins with potential for oil and gas discoveries. Oil seeps have been reported in several areas with shows in exploration wells drilled in the Ogaden basin in the southeast.
A number of discoveries have been made which are yet to be produced including the Calub and Hilala fields, discovered in the 1970s. These are reported to have substantial gas and condensate resources.
Numerous areally extensive production sharing agreements have been awarded in the past and some oil discoveries have been made on trend with discoveries in Kenya. None of these have yet resulted in commercial oil or gas production, probably due to the difficulty in accessing a market within the land-locked country and the fluid political situation.
A number of East African rift basins in southern Ethiopia, on trend with those in Uganda and Kenya, may eventually yield commercial oil and gas discoveries and output from the Ogaden basin may eventually be piped to Djibouti. However, with so many uncertainties, Globalshift has not assigned an oil or gas production profile to the country.
ETHIOPIA
Map and National Flag
South and East Africa
Capital
Population
Land area (sq kms)
Oil prod (000s b/d)
Gas prod (bcm/yr)
Oil cons (000s b/d)
Gas cons (bcm/yr)
Addis Abbaba
82 mm
1,104,300
None
None
55
None
Government
Ethiopia is an authoritarian federal republic. There are 11 administrative regions, 2 of which are self-governing. The Federal Parliamentary Assembly is bicameral comprising a 547-member Council of People's Representatives and a 110-member Council of the Federation.
The president is elected by the Peoples' Representatives for a 6-year term. The Council of Ministers includes the Prime Minister and several deputies as determined by the Peoples' Representatives.
The oil and gas industry is overseen by the Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoMPNG) whose role is to generate data, promote and negotiate licenses and ensure that operations are conducted in accordance with concession agreements.
History of Exploration
In 1860 an oil seep was reported in Ethiopia although exploration did not begin until the 1920s when seeps were mapped on the Red Sea coast, in the Ogaden basin, in the Gara Mulatta mountains near Harrar, in the Fafan and Gerger river valleys, and near Jijiga.
The first exploration license in the Harrarge province was granted in 1915 and transferred to Anglo-American, a subsidiary of Standard Oil company, incorporated into Esso. In 1920 the so-called Dudley Expedition was carried out, to conduct geological surveys in northern Harrarge between Harrar and Jijiga and the Afar depression. Two drilling sites were noted but were not drilled.
During the next decade, exploration focused on the Red Sea coast until 1936 when, during the Italian occupation, geological mapping of the Ogaden Basin began by Agip. After the Second World War Sinclair Petroleum was granted an oil exploration license covering all Ethiopia and regional geological analysis again focused activity on the Ogaden region. Shallow holes were drilled but Sinclair relinquished the concession in 1956.
In 1959 Gewerkschaft Elwerath of Germany signed a concession agreement covering the eastern Ogaden and seismic and gravity surveys commenced in 1960 in the lower Wabishebelle area. The first deep exploration well, Abred-1, was then drilled in 1963 which was abandoned as a dry hole.
In 1969 Tenneco obtained a license drilling its first well, El Kuran-1, in 1972 which had numerous oil shows. The company drilled a number of further wells including Calub-1 which discovered gas and Magan-1 and Hilala-1 to the west of Calub-1 which produced gas and non-commercial oil. Tenneco relinquished the concession in 1975 after the Ethiopian revolution when the military expelled all western companies.
Subsequently the Soviet Petroleum Exploration Expedition (SPEE) conducted a number of surveys and drilled several appraisal wells delineating the Calub and Hilala gas fields.
In the early 1990s Hunt and Maxus Energy conducted geological surveys but it was not until 2005 when Petronas acquired 3 blocks in the Ogaden basin (Genale, Kallafo and Welwel-Warder) after completing a 2-year exclusive study agreement with the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines and Energy. It also won a tender to develop the Calub and Hillala gas fields but abandoned other blocks in the west after drilling.
ETHIOPIA: SEDIMENTARY BASINS
Globalshift.co.uk (source: Purcell Geological Consultants)