Ethiopia to offer 14 oil permits next year

November 25, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) – Ethiopian government is preparing to offer 14 oil and gas exploration permits next years to attract foreign investors to the landlocked country despite the shaky security conditions there.

There are 11 oil firm working the Horn of Africa country but excepted the Malaysia’s state owned Petronas, the oil sector in Ethiopia remains dominated by small companies which facing difficulties to get credit for financing under the current global financial crisis.

"We are still inviting companies to come talk to us about licensing and we hope to have a total of 25 in three year’s time, and that will be enough," said Alemayehu Tegenu Ethiopian Minister for Mines and Energy in an interview with Reuters this week.

The government believes the Ogaden basin, which covers 350,000 sq km (135,100 sq miles), contains gas reserves of some 4 trillion cubic feet. Officials point to neighboring countries such as Sudan and Yemen as evidence there could be major oil deposits under Ethiopia’s deserts.

The minister further pledged that his government would offer incentive packages to companies but added it would depend on the size of the investment.

"Incentives that we can discuss include duty-free imports of machinery and refunds of exploration costs should oil or gas be discovered," Alemayehu said.

He also dismissed reports about threats by the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front adding there would be five basins out of the troubled region.

"There was an attack in 2007 but companies exploring Ogaden are now secured by our military," he said. "We don’t see any problems near our camps and exploration areas. The rebels make claims that aren’t reflected on the ground."

Ogaden rebels attacked an oil field in April 2007 where the separatist group killed 74 people, including nine Chinese employees of Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, part of Sinopec, China’s biggest refiner and petrochemicals producer.

(ST)

3 Forum messages

Ethiopia to offer 14 oil permits next year 26 November 2009 03:12, by The Living Witness

In US they buy oil from all the world and re-inject it into the reservoirs for future, while here we are just eroding all part of the virgin land so that we may be left with nothing but only poverty.Sincerely how can we engage ourselves with such risk for our future in Africa.

Ethiopia to offer 14 oil permits next year 27 November 2009 23:32, by Mohammad100

Thank you "The Living Witness". Your concerns are shared by all true African children. But for those invaders of the Yemenite dynasty of the present Ethiopian dictators, they do not care for inviting foreign scavengers who will devour this nation as far as those permits are not issued in the territory of Tigiray. All the persumed permits are prepared for the territories of Oromia and non Tigray kibib. This is for two reasons: 1) The TPLF hooligans do not care if Oromia, Sidam, Benishengul ..... or all other nationalities vicinities are ecologically destroyed as far as those foreign scavengers made drop for them some left overs. They (the TPL) have proved to be ready to rob this nation in the day light. But the only thing that saves this nation is these savages do not have the know how. 2) Their land in Tigray is a barren land. They do not have any natural resource to explore. There is a saying by singer Tilahun Gessess in afaan Oromo, which goes like this: "Dhaban maal wolihiluu". Meanning: if you do not have anything, what will you afford others with your generosity. Or Amhara people say "Malaxaa ayllachim" Meaning, the bold with on hair on his head, doesn’t have to shave.

May god save this African Nation from devastation in the hands of TPLF?

Asalaam Aleikum,

Mohammad.
- Ethiopia to offer 14 oil permits next year 29 November 2009 04:34, by Mohammad100
  
  Ethiopian regime has already sold hundreds of thousands of hectares of fertile agricultural land in Oromia to foreign investors. The regime has put the whole of the state of Oromia on the market.
  
  More than 80 Indian companies have invested an estimated $4billion in buying huge plantation in Oromia. The largest among them is Karuturi Global, one of the world’s largest producers of cut roses. It has signed deals for just under 350,000 hectares to create what it claims to be the world’s largest agricultural land-bank.
  
  The King Abdullah initiative for Saudi agricultural investment abroad has also bought vast fertile farmland in Oromia. A group of Saudi investors is spending $100m to raise wheat, barley and rice on land leased to them by the Ethiopian regime. The investors are exempt from tax and export the entire crop back home. Sun Biofuels (UK) has acquired 125,000 hectares of land for jatropha farm and is in the process of starting bio fuel production in Oromia and Flora EcoPower (Germany) has bought 13,000 hectars of land and growing jatropha for bio fuel. The list goes on.
  
  In Oromia land belongs to the people. The Oromo people do not only farm the land but have a sacred traditional, spiritual and cultural connection to their land. The Oromo people have been living on their current lands for thousands of years with perfect harmony with nature and they are the best in the region in proper land usage for generations. Now, the Tigrean led regime has condemned the Oromo people to virtual slavery by forcibly uprooting them from the land of their ancestors.
  
  The environmental destruction by the industrial scale farming and exploitation of the natural resource will not only affect Oromia but the whole region.