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S. AND E. AFRICA
Diamond soil survey
Brief history of the country
Lesotho (the Kingdom of Lesotho) is a land-locked country entirely surrounded (and thus is an enclave) by South Africa.
The original inhabitants of the area known as Basutoland were nomadic hunter-gatherers of the San people. In 1822 the Bakoteli clan settled and it became a kingdom. Conflicts between British and Dutch colonists established Basutoland as a place of refuge with French missionaries providing advice on diplomacy with European powers.
With the Dutch trying to colonise the west the king signed a treaty with the British. The Dutch Boers were subsequently suppressed but in 1851 the British tried to take control. Finally in 1868, at the king’s request, it became a British protectorate with half annexed by the Boers.
Run at first by the Cape Colony, internal power was restored to traditional chiefs in 1884. Basutoland gained independence from the UK in 1966 and became Lesotho.
It was ruled by a de facto government, overturned in a military coup in 1986, then handed back to an elected government in 1993. In 2002 a semi-stable government was established although another abortive military coup took place in 2014.
The weak economy of Lesotho depends on agriculture, manufacturing and mining and on worker remittances from South Africa.
Oil and gas summary
With its lowest point being 1,400m, Lesotho is the only independent country in the world that lies entirely above 1,000m. In fact over 80% of the country lies above 1,800m. The mountains are made up of a huge volume of Jurassic volcanics that penetrated the continental Karoo basin that covered much of southern Africa.
Lesotho is land-locked and mountainous underlain by the African Kalahari craton which was covered by a large inland basin during the Late Carboniferous to the Middle-Jurassic. During the Jurassic the crust under the Karoo basin ruptured, releasing the basaltic lava over the so-called Clarens desert.
These covered nearly the whole of Southern Africa and the pile of lava that accumulated over the course of several eruptions was more than 1600m thick, especially in present-day Lesotho. The massive lava outpouring brought the Karoo sedimentation to an abrupt end.
Lesotho has no history of production and, apart from one unsuccessful exploration well drilled in the mid 1970s, it has seen no drilling. Globalshift does not forecast any future production of oil or gas from the country.
LESOTHO
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)
Maseru
2.1 mm
30,355
None
None
3
None
Government
The Lesotho Government is a parliamentary monarchy with the Prime Minister as head of government with executive authority. The monarch serves a ceremonial function only.
The upper house of parliament is called the Senate, composed of 22 hereditary chiefs and 11 appointees. The 120-member National Assembly is the lower house of parliament.
There is no government department in Lesotho responsible for oil and gas resources.