Resources
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Regional prospects for energy stay high
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - The future of the East African Community (EAC) in terms of oil and gas resouces looks promising, a new report by Deloitte says.
Deloitte is an international financial services firm. The ‘Deloitte Guide to Oil and Gas in East Africa 2014 edition’ revealed there has been a 28.24% increase in Africa’s proven oil reserves in the last 10 years and an increase of 2.9% in 2014 from last year.
“Much of the additional resources have been discovered in East Africa,” the Deloitte’s Energy and Resources Leader, Bill Page said.
In Tanzania, Page said continuing exploration has added to the country’s offshore gas reserves and a new licensing round was launched in October 2013.
Page said in September 2013, Uganda issued its first production license for the Kingfisher field with the expectation that others will follow in 2014.
“There is high expectation that others will follow in 2014, along with finalization of plans for a new oil refinery at Hoima,” he said.
He told East African Business Week that following the first oil discovery in 2012 at the Ngamia-1 well in Turkana, Kenya has seen continuous exploration success.
“With the most recent discoveries, Tullow Oil has updated its estimated discovered resources to over 600 million barrels,” he said.
According to him, attention in 2014 will also focus on offshore projects with the BG Group currently drilling off Mombasa as further offshore drilling is planned for Kenya’s exclusive economic zone in 2014. He said these trends will continue.
By Leonard Magomba, Saturday, May 17th, 2014