Ethiopia has started a trial of crude oil production at the Kalub and Hilala fields, located in the east of the country
The test-production is undertaken by Chinese oil and gas exploration company Poly-GCL Petroleum Holdings Investment Ltd (POY-GCL).
The trail of recovering oil is in line with the Ethiopian government’s aim to discover more oil and gas streams in the country, aiming to lift Ethiopia as an energy-based economy, apart from agriculture.
Meles Alemu, minister of mines, petroleum and natural gas, said that the crude oil output aims to ensure Ethiopia’s sustainable economic transformation, developing the economy by 2025.
In April 2018, Ethiopian government revealed plans to generate US$1bn per year from the extraction of crude oil and natural gas deposits in the country.
Speaking about the crude production to Xinhua, Yu Baodong, chairman of Poly-GCL, for his part, stated that it traced a high yield industrial oil flow in 2017 in the Ogaden basin, that can be a significant breakthrough for Ethiopia’s oil exploration.
Ethiopia is also planning to upgrade its downstream portfolio to boost oil and gas infrastructure. The country is planning to install a pipeline from Somali Regional State to Djibouti, aiming to export natural gas by 2020. The Ethiopian Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas has signed an agreement with Chinese mining company Poly GCL for the development of the natural gas.
