Ethiopia’s First Natural Gas Development Project Behind ScheduleSeptember 23, 2017 - Due to complex negotiations with the Djiboutian government on gas pipeline construction to the port of Djibouti, Ethiopia’s first natural gas development project in the Ogaden basin in Somali Regional State is lagging behind schedule, reports the Ethiopian newspaper The Reporter. The company has been drilling appraisal gas wells and oil and gas exploration wells in the Ogaden basin, which demonstrated promising results. The gas development project is estimated to cost four billion dollars – a mammoth development project that ranks among the top three infrastructure development projects in Ethiopia along with the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Motuma Mekassa, the Ethiopian Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas, said that there is a significant amount of proven gas reserve that Poly-GCL intends to develop and export to China. An LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) plant would be built at the Port of Djibouti.

Source: Ethiopian News September 23, 2017 18:56 UTC