Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. (File Photo: REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri)
By Aaron Maasho
ADDIS ABABA – 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.
“For the time being, a Chinese firm is carrying out activities on the Calub and Hilala reserves,” Hailemariam said. “In the next two years, we plan to start exporting and using the natural gas from these areas.”
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