Some of the numbers presented in this website may not be the most recent available
Globalshift.co.uk - copyright © 2009 to 2025; All rights reserved
Brief history of the country
Zambia (the Republic of Zambia) is land-locked. It borders Congo (Kinshasa) to the north, Tanzania and Malawi (east), Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia (south) and Angola (west).
Inhabited by San hunter-gatherers until 300 AD, who were replaced by Bantus, waves of immigration introduced a wide range of tribes through to the 19th century and many kingdoms were established. The Portuguese visited after 1790 and Livingstone in 1855.
The British South Africa Company, led by Cecil Rhodes, obtained mineral rights in 1888, and founded North Eastern and North Western Rhodesia. In 1911 these two regions merged to form the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia which ceded control to the UK government in 1923.
In 1953 the semi-independent Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was created. Campaigns for dissolution led to formation of the United National Independence Party (UNIP). Independence was granted by the UK in 1964 when the country was renamed Zambia.
A single-party state from 1972, it was forced by unrest to become multi-party in 1991 after which its economy improved with international investment in mineral resources and expanded transport links. The government is trying to reduce reliance on copper, promoting, tourism and hydro-power.
Oil and gas summary
Land-locked Zambia consists mostly of high plateaus dissected by river valleys. It is drained by two major river basins, the Zambezi/Kafue basin covering most of the country and the Congo basin in the north.
The Zambezi valley along the southern border of Zambia from Lake Kariba to the Victoria Falls is a rift basin. The river drops 100m over the Falls, named by Livingstone in 1855. Lake Tanganyika in the north, forming the border with Tanzania, is part of the Albertine Rift within the Congo basin and receives water from the Kalambo River.
The country overlies the collision zone of the Congo craton and the African Kalahari craton which, in the south, is called the Zambezi Belt. It is rich in minerals but has no oil or gas resources. The southern edge contains rift grabens within the Karoo basin. These have been explored with seismic data and 2 wells but no petroleum potential has been recognised.
Part of the eastern plateau bordering Lake Tanganyika overlies the East African rift but this area remains very high risk. Globalshift believes that the country is unlikely to achieve any oil or gas production in the future.
ZAMBIA
Map and National Flag
South and East Africa
S. AND E. AFRICA
Small hut
Capital
Population
Land area (sq kms)
Oil prod (000s b/d)
Gas prod (bcm/yr)
Oil cons (000s b/d)
Gas cons (bcm/yr)
Lusaka
13.2 mm
752,612
None
None
22
None
Government
Zambia is a presidential democratic republic whereby the president is both head of state and head of government in a multi-party system.The president serves terms of 5 years, limited to 2 terms.
The unicameral 158-member National Assembly is the legislative body of which 150 members are directly elected and 8 are appointed by the president.
The Ministry of Energy and Water Development is responsible for oil and gas resources. It includes the Department of Energy and Department of Geological Survey.
Geology and History of Exploration
Land-locked Zambia overlies the collision zone of the Congo craton and the African Kalahari craton. In the southern half of Zambia this is called the Zambezi Belt which was created by the collision of these cratons during the assembly of the Gondwana super-continent at the end of the Pre-Cambrian. It comprises meta-sediments and meta-volcanics and is rich in minerals.
The Kalahari craton was covered by a large inland basin during the Late Carboniferous to the Middle-Jurassic which, in Zambia, includes the Luangwa basin on the east, and Kariba basin and Kafue trough on the west. This area has been explored for oil and gas but without success.
During the Jurassic the crust under the Karoo basin in the southwest of Southern Africa ruptured, releasing huge volumes of basaltic lava bringing Karoo sedimentation to an abrupt end.
In the northeastern part of Zambia is the so-called Bangweulu Block, which is a cratonic unit that forms part of the Congo craton consisting of Pre-Cambrian granites and volcanics overlain by a continental sedimentary succession.
On the northern edge of this block a small part of Lake Tanganyika lies in Zambia which is part of the East African Albertine Rift. Although oil and gas fields have been located within this rift in Uganda to the north, the limited sedimentary cover in Zambia and excessive recent faulting suggests few opportunities for analogous fields.
The geology of Zambia appears unsuitable for oil and gas generation and accumulation although some of the Karoo section drilled in the 1980s was found to be gas-prone.
History - Zambia has no history of production. During the 1980s petroleum exploration in Zambia focused on the Kariba and Luangwa basins.
In 1987, after an extensive 2D seismic program, 2 wells were drilled by Placid Oil to evaluate Karoo sediments in the Luangwa rift basin. Both were unsuccessful. Mobil acquired 300kms of 2D seismic in the Kariba basin but it did not drill any wells.
In 2013 a number of licences in the north and south were issued to small companies but, after geological evaluation, no drilling was carried out and the main entrant, Swala Energy, relinquished its permits in 2015.