Energy, oil and minerals
Ogaden Basin oil and gas: Calub, Hilala and the Djibouti pipeline plan
The Ogaden Basin, in the Somali Region of Ethiopia, covers about 350,000 square kilometres and holds the Calub and Hilala gas fields, found by the US company Tenneco in the 1970s. In 2013 Ethiopia signed a deal with China's Poly-GCL to produce the gas and pipe it about 767 km to Djibouti for export. A test of crude oil from Hilala began in 2018. In 2025 Ethiopia's Energy Outlook dropped the export plan, citing lack of financing, and the Chinese firm was sidelined.
The basin
The Ogaden Basin lies in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia (Radio Dalsan, 29 June 2025). It covers some 350,000 square kilometres and is made of sedimentary rock up to 10,000 metres thick and is geologically similar to oil-rich basins in the Middle East (Wikipedia, Ogaden Basin). The basin has been divided into 21 blocks (same source).
A century of searching
| Year | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1920 | Standard Oil makes the first exploration | Wikipedia, Ogaden Basin |
| 1974 | Tenneco reports a gas discovery | Wikipedia, Ogaden Basin |
| Dec 1999 | Ethiopia and the Texas firm Sicor announce the Gazoil Ethiopia Project to develop the gas fields | Wikipedia, Ogaden Basin |
| 24 Apr 2007 | Attack on an exploration site at Abole run for Malaysia's Petronas: about 65 Ethiopians and 9 Chinese workers killed; the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) carried it out | Wikipedia, Ogaden Basin |
| Nov 2013 | Ethiopia signs a petroleum development agreement with Poly-GCL, a joint venture of China Poly Group and Hong Kong's Golden Concord | The Reporter Ethiopia |
| 2018 | Crude oil test production begins near Hilala | Hiiraan Online, March 2018; Belex |
| Feb 2019 | Ethiopia and Djibouti sign a memorandum for a gas pipeline to the Red Sea | Pipeline and Gas Journal, February 2019 |
| Early 2022 | The pipeline plan goes on hold | Radio Dalsan, 29 June 2025 |
| 2025 | The Ethiopian Energy Outlook 2025 drops the gas export plan | Radio Dalsan, 29 June 2025 |
Other companies have held blocks in the basin, including Pexco Exploration of the Netherlands, Petronas of Malaysia, Lundin East Africa of Sweden, SouthWest Energy of Hong Kong and Afar Explorer of the US (Wikipedia, Ogaden Basin).
Calub and Hilala
Calub lies about 1,200 km south-east of Addis Ababa, and Hilala about 80 km further east (World Oil, 3 November 2017). Reserve estimates differ: some reports give 4 trillion cubic feet for the two fields, others 8 trillion. In 2025 the energy economist Dr Lidet Tadesse put Ethiopia's gas reserves at 6.9 trillion cubic feet (Radio Dalsan, 2025).
The export plan and its end
The plan was to turn the gas into liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipe it about 767 km to the port of Djibouti, at a cost of about $4 billion for the pipeline (Pipeline and Gas Journal, 2019). In 2017 officials expected exports by 2019 (World Oil, 2017).
The Ethiopian Energy Outlook 2025, written by the Ministry of Water and Energy, Ethiopian Electric Power and the Petroleum and Energy Authority, said the $4.5 billion LNG export project was no longer viable because of financing problems. It turned policy towards using the gas at home, for fertiliser and backup power. Poly-GCL was sidelined after failing to meet its targets (Radio Dalsan, 29 June 2025; Upstream).
Related pages
Sources
- Radio Dalsan, 29 June 2025 · radiodalsan.com
- Wikipedia, Ogaden Basin · en.wikipedia.org
- The Reporter Ethiopia · thereporterethiopia.com
- Hiiraan Online, March 2018 · hiiraan.org
- Belex · belex.com
- Pipeline and Gas Journal, February 2019 · pgjonline.com
- World Oil, 3 November 2017 · worldoil.com
- Upstream · upstreamonline.com
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