Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)
Issayas Mekuria
21 January 2008
Addis Ababa — An oil exploration request from Texas-based Inter Global Technologies in northeastern Ethiopia has been tabled to the Council of Ministers two weeks ago after a series of negotiations between the company and the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MoME).
"We expect the Council will approve our decision," Alemayehu Tegenu, minister of MoME, told Fortune.
Following the agreement that has been reached after two years of negotiations, the request has to be first approved by the Council before the Ministry and the company sign an agreement.
Inter Global, who is also exploring for oil in Jordan and has a subsidiary refining company in Indonesia, is targeting the volcanic area in the Afar Regional State spilling over the borders of the Amhara and Tigray regional states.
"No other company has requested to explore oil in that part of the country before, "Alemayehu disclosed. "This company has envisaged exploring a vast area of land."
The Council was expected to pass its decision in its regular Friday assembly on January 18, 2008. However, the agenda was not raised in the session.
Alemayehu hopes a decision would be made next Friday.
If approved, executives of the company are expected to come to Ethiopia to sign a concession agreement with the Ministry. This will make the company the seventh to enter the country for oil exploration following White Nile, which took a 29,465sqm plot in the Southern region last week.
The first and most prominent among them is the Malaysian Petronas that is undertaking exploration activities in Gambela and Ogaden areas after signing an agreement in 2003.
The first American company that entered the country to explore oil was South West Energy, owned by a United States (US)-born Ethiopian, Tewodros Ashenafi. This company, registered in Honk Kong, undertakes exploration in the Afar Regional State taking a 2006 land concession.
The Swedish Lundi Petroleum AB last year has taken land in concession in the Ogaden Basin.
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