ADDIS ABABA– The Ethiopia-Djibouti natural gas pipeline installation agreement which helps Addis Ababa to export its natural resource to the international market is awaiting parliamentary green light as the construction progress.
Ethiopia and Djibouti signed an agreement to lay down a 760Km natural gas pipeline that stretches from Elala and Kalub, Somali Regional State, to Djibouti Port.
The Chinese company POLY-GCL which has been exploring petroleum and natural gas in the Ogaden basin since 2013 is executing the 3.2-billion-dollar project that includes the construction of a processing plant, and the production is expected to begin by 2021.
The Bill helps Ethiopia to export natural gas using a pipeline that transits through the territory of Djibouti which is also leading port access of Addis Ababa. The Bill which gives Ethiopia full ownership and title over the pipeline is an important step to realize the country’s ambition to export its resources.
Investments have been developing the Calub and Hilala fields there since signing a production-sharing deal with Ethiopia in 2013.
The agreement between Djibouti and Ethiopia comes more than a year after POLY-GCL signed a memorandum of understanding with Djibouti to invest a four billion USD to build the natural gas pipeline, a liquefaction plant and an export terminal to be located in Damerjog, near the country’s border with Somalia.
According to the accord, the transit tariff should be determined by the investor payable to Djibouti. The Bill also helps to ensure environmentally sound transit of natural gas to minimize harmful impacts and also secure efficient, uninterrupted and unimpeded transit of the natural resources.
Ethiopia will get as much as one billion USD annually once it starts to export the natural gas, and the revenue will rise to seven billion USD once the export volume starts to increase in six, seven years.
Potential for future oil and gas discoveries are also in Gambella, Metema near Sudan border, Afar, Tigray, and Amhara regional states.
The Ethiopian Herald December 20/2019
BY DESTA GEBREHIWOT
