Ethiopia to start production of 4.7 trillion cubic meters of natural gas

Ethiopian News, Tigrai Online, November 20, 2015

It has been reported that Ethiopia has found one of the largest deposits of natural gas in the south west of the country.

Ethiopian Minister of Mines and Natural Gas Mr. Tolosa Shagi Petroleum said Ethiopia will begin to produce 4.7 trillion cubic meters of natural gas over the next two years from Calub and Hilala fields. According to FBC news report, the minister told Andalu Agency the final tests from the fields are positive and production is scheduled to start within two years of time.

Ethiopia has one of the highest deposits of natural gas and most of it is untouched.

Ethiopia expects to start producing and exporting natural gas from under-developed reserves in its southeast by 2017, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said on Friday.

Several firms have already acquired licenses to explore more than 40 blocks throughout Ethiopia in the past four years, the vast majority of them in the southeastern Somali Region.

"Studies show the existence of natural gas reserves in several places, and they will all be gradually developed," Hailemariam told a press conference in the Ethiopian capital.

Officials from the mines ministry say the Calub and Hilala fields in the Ogaden Basin have deposits of 4.7 trillion cubic feet of gas and 13.6 million barrels of associated liquids, both discovered in the 1970s but not yet exploited.

This article was published originally on March 28, 2015. We updated it with new information.