Wednesday, March 06, 2013

“No oil discovered” says Ethiopia and UK company

(Mar 05, 2013 (ADDIS ABAB))--The Ethiopian government and Tullow Oil Plc, has dismissed media reports that the UK company has discovered oil along Ethiopia’s western South Omo block. The London-based company, which found crude oil in Kenya last year, is searching for a possible petroleum basin in Ethiopia’s South Omo valley as extension of the oil resources from neighbouring Kenya.

Tullow, which is executing the exploration work along with the Africa Oil Corporation and Marathon Oil Corp. began drilling its first well (Sabisa1) last January and intends to drill two more this year. The wells are drilled up to 2,600 meters deep and will cost the company around 50 million dollars for each exploration well.

Tullow has so far drilled about 1,500 meters deep. No oil has been found but the company remains very optimistic that it will eventually gain a positive outcome.

The US-based website, Energy and Capital, and a number of news outlets last week reported that Tullow had discovered commercial-grade oil in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia near the border with Kenya. However, the spokesperson for Ethiopia’s ministry of mines, Bacha Fuji, on Tuesday told Sudan Tribune that the reports on the websites were baseless. Read more from Sudan Tribune »

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