Somalilandsun — Amid East Africa’s oil and gas boom, the more adventurous oilmen are starting to gravitate toward the vast Ogaden desert region of Ethiopia, where drilling activity has been sparse since rebels attacked an exploration team in 2007, killing nine Chinese and 65 Ethiopians.
Oilmen believe Ethiopia lies on the same oil-bearing strata as the massive discovery in Kenya by British-based Tullow Oil in early 2012.
Initial estimates are that Ethiopia has oil reserves of around 2.7 billion barrels.
That’s a modest enough total in global terms, but it’s a potential bonanza for an impoverished state like Ethiopia, which has been land-locked since Eritrea broke away to form an independent state on the Red Sea in 1991 after a 30-year separatist war.
The Horn of Africa country has not produced any oil in commercial quantities since its first oil seep was reported in 1860.
There was some exploration 1915, which continued fitfully until the 1940s without any serious finds.
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