The Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas last month paid the Ethiopian government 80 million dollars for the Calub and Hilala natural gas fields in the Ogaden basin, south-east Ethiopia.
Pertonas won the international tender put up by the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) to privatize the Calub and Hilala gas fields found in the Somali Regional State. The ministry put up the tender in April 2006 inviting petroleum companies interested in developing the two gas fields discovered in 1973. In August 2006, MME announced that Petronas was the winner.
After a long negotiation on the details of the gas development project last June MME and Petronas signed petroleum development agreement and production sharing agreement (PSA), which enables the latter to extract and market the gas reserves in Calub and Hilala localities. Recently, Petronas paid the 80 million dollars pre-development cost Ethiopia invested on the gas fields.
A senior government official told The Reporter that the signing of the gas development project and the predevelopment cost payment were big achievements for MME. “Eighty million dollars is a big sum. The ministry has never received this amount of payment,” the official said.
The natural gas reserve in Calub and Hilala is estimated at four trillion cubic feet (4TCF). The gas fields that covers 285 sq m are found 1, 200 km south-east of Addis Ababa. The gas fields were first discovered by an American company called Tenneco during the reign of Emperor Haile-selassie. Tenneco, which drilled three wells in Calub and one in Hilala, was forced to withdraw because of the 1974 revolution that toppled Emperor Haile-selassie.
The Soviet Petroleum Exploration Expedition (SPEE), which drilled additional wells in Calub and Hilala in the 1980s and early 90s, confirmed the gas reserves. SPEE drilled seven wells in Calub and three in Hilala, 80 km from Calub. In 1998 the Chinese petroleum company, Zhoungyan Petroleum Exploration Bureau (ZPEB), contracted by the Ethiopian government, made eight of the wells in Calub ready for production. ZPEB was paid 5.6 million dollars for the well completion work.
Several companies which have shown interest to develop the gas fields held negotiations with the Ethiopian government. Secor, an American company, Methanol Joint Stock and Stroy Trans Gas, Russian companies were some of the companies which held negotiations with the government. Although these companies signed memorandums of understanding (MOU) on different occasions none of them were able to sign final agreement for various reasons.
Another company, which was interested in developing the gas fields, was SI Tech International (SIL). The Jordanian Company, SIL, signed petroleum development agreement and PSA in 2003. However, the company was unable to commence work on the project until 2006. Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of MME, revoked the petroleum development license given to SIL and decided to tender the project.
Petronas has been projecting for oil in the Gambella basin, western part of Ethiopia and in different localities in the Ogaden basin. The company took over the Gambella block covering 16, 000 sq km of land in 2003. In 2005, the company secured three blocks in the Ogaden basin. The exploration blocks are found in Wel-Wel, Warder, Fer-Fer and Genale localities in the Ogaden basin. The total exploration area is 93,000 sq km. The company paid over five million dollars in signature bonus.
The company offered training programs for over 20 professionals working in the MME and it is also engaged in community development projects in the Gambella region. As part of its assistance to the ministry, the company upgraded ageing petroleum data collected from the Ogaden basin by different Companies.
Petronas proposed to build a gas processing plant and to construct a gas pipeline that stretches from the Calub and Hilala gasfields all the way to the Pot of Djibouti. In addition to the gasfields, MME granted Petronas two exploration blocks called B l1 and 15. B 11 and 15, which are very close to the gasfields believed to be the most promising areas for oil discoveries. Oil were noted in Calub and Hilala as wel as in bll and 15.
Petronas plans to drill exploration wells in these areas. The company proposed to invest up to 1.9 billion dollars for the petroleum exploration and development project. The construction of the gaspipeline and the gas processing plant could take over three years.
If the gas development project comes to fruition, Ethiopia for the first time, would be a hydrocarbon producing country. Petronas will pay a 35 percent income tax payment and three percent royalty fee to the Ethiopian government. The government will also have a 5 percent share from the annual gas production.
Petronas, wholly owned by the Malaysian government, operates in 35 countries in Asia and Africa. It is engaged in oil exploration and production project in African countries like Sudan, Chad and Angola. Petronas, which was established in 1974, is one of the top ten leading oil companies in the global oil industry.
I struggled mightily to postpone the idea of sharing some of the thoughts that have started to consume me these last few days with respect to what we all hear and read and are told about what has been happening in the CUD leadership. I decided to share a thought or two, finally.
I also struggled to make sure whether what I’ve been hearing and reading was a déjà vu experience or a reality, all the way wishing the former were true. Now I think it’s too late for my wishes to be granted. It’s a reality that we’re talking about, we’re referring to, and no longer a mirage, alas, no déjà vu, for we’re already in it. We’re in the grip of the reality about some fundamental human problems that have started to eat away the good things that we’ve seen and we’ve taken pride in in the leadership of CUD.
Like so many others I do not exactly know the details of issues that brought about what we’re now witnessing about the undeniably deep problems in the CUD leadership. It’s now time for the people of Ethiopia to be given a chance to know the truth and to stand for truth wherever that truth leads. Where is the truth about what has brought about the deep human or political or whatever problems that are slowly yet apparently effectively draining the good things that have bound up the leadership of CUD in the most trying to times? I think the people of Ethiopia, who have been behind the CUDP and its leadership, deserve to know the whole truth and nothing less than the whole truth about their leaders in such a way that let them decide, once again, who their true leaders are and who they would elect again, given a chance.
Yes, it might be prudential to deal with some sensitive issues among the CUD leadership within the CUD leadership with a hope of resolving all such issues while continuing to stand up for the principles and values for which CUD has stood up. But now is not that time for it’s become too late to take a stock of whatever issues that brought about the problems in the CUD leadership and the best way to go forward, at this moment, is to let the people of Ethiopia know what has gone wrong among them and to correct whatever has gone wrong, admit failures on personal or collective levels, and continue the journey that has barely begun. Without a totally transparent exercise of integrity and truthfulness, and, in short, without good character that shines in darkness as well as anywhere, there is no good reason to expect a rosy day to dawn in Ethiopia.
Finally, this is the litmus test for anyone in leadership position, including the CUD leaders: without consistently practicing character traits such as personal integrity, humility, truthfulness, openness, personal transparency, tolerance, etc., there won’t be a true and enduring leadership, even in the CUDP. Only persons of good character are those that can and will endure the tests and trials of being in leadership and the people of Ethiopia will have leaders in you as long as you practice such character traits. With those who consistently practice such character traits as the above there is no good reason to believe that it’s impossible to resolve whatever problems have become the reasons for the deep leadership crisis that is among the CUD leaders now. I’m not pointing my fingers at any individual in the CUD leadership to blame for whatever has come to be the problem in the CUD leadership but then truth be told that I can’t help holding the CUD leadership accountable for whatever failures in the CUD leadership that can be resolved within the CUD leadership.
I close this note with a sincere recommendation of at least one book edited by the well known writer Os Guinness titled Character Counts: Leadership Qualities in Washington, Wilberforce, Lincoln, and Solzhenitsyn (Baker Books, 1999) for all those in CUD leadership to read and reflect upon. This is among numerous good books for anyone who means to play any leadership role no matter how small or large scale it is. Even the best thing to do for the CUD delegation in the US is to set a day or two apart and meet Os Guinness or his likes, if that is at all possible, and learn from person’s of Guinness’ stature the life changing qualities of leaders. I’d be happy to provide his contact address if the CUD delegation desires so. If being Ethiopians as we are, and if one wants to dismiss my sincere suggestion by saying, “who are you to tell us…” I’d only say, yes, that is true to us and forget what I’ve just shared above and be such an Ethiopian!
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Yohannes Gebrewold can be reached at [email protected]
MOGADISHU (AFP) — A deep political row has erupted at the highest levels of Somalia’s transitional government, already bogged down in a protracted struggle against a deadly insurgency, officials said yesterday.
Somalia’s attorney general, Abdullahi Dahir, was sacked on Friday by the cabinet for ordering the arrest of the supreme court’s chairman and one of its judges, judicial sources said.
Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi’s government deemed the arrests illegal but Dahir – who has refused to leave his post – says supreme court chief Yusuf Ali Haru and judge Mohamed Nur should face corruption charges.
“The step taken by the cabinet to dismiss me is illegal and will derail the judicial process in the country. I will not accept the dismissal,” Dahir told reporters in the capital yesterday.
Some observers said Dahir is backed by President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and argued the incident highlighted a rift at the highest level of the ailing transitional administration, which has achieved little in three years of existence.
“There is a hopeless disagreement between the top government officials,” said deputy parliament speaker Mohamed Omar Dalha.
“Something will go wrong if we do not take quick steps to solve this problem. We must not wait until the matter turns into armed conflict,” Dalha told parliament in the southern town of Baidoa.
“You know the cabinet has sacked the attorney general, who has in turn rejected the dismissal, and the head of the supreme court is in jail. So as lawmakers, we must stand up and see that we address the root of the political disorder,” he added.
Former powerful Mogadishu warlord Mohamed Qanyare Afrah warned that the standoff should be swiftly resolved or risk sparking fresh clan unrest in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation.
“This could lead to a great political disaster in the country. What we can do is to stand up with justice, not favouring anybody so that we can put this disagreement behind us,” said Afrah, also a lawmaker.
Clan rivalries have fuelled seemingly endless and bloody power struggles in Somalia since the nation acquired its independence in 1960.
Conflict flared after the 1991 ouster of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Since then, Somalia has had no central authority and defied dozens of initiatives to restore stability.
President Yusuf, a former president of the self-declared northern state of Puntland, is a former warlord from the Darod clan, one of Somalia’s two biggest clans.
Prime Minister Gedi is from the other major clan, the Hawiye, which is dominant in Mogadishu. His government last year suffered mass resignations which forced him to reshuffle his cabinet.
Meanwhile, three people, including a policeman, were killed yesterday in Mogadishu, where Somalia’s Ethiopian-backed transitional government is battling an Islamist-led insurgency, witnesses said.
Gunmen shot an unidentified man in Mogadishu’s violence-wracked Bakara market area, eyewitness Abdullahi Mohamed said. “The assailants managed to escape after killing the man.”
Witnesses also said that a teenager killed a civilian in Sanaa neighbourhood. The circumstances of the incident were not immediately clear.
Meanwhile, a Somali policeman was also gunned down in the Suq Baad neighbourhood by unidentified gunmen, according to local residents.
The interim government claims the insurgency is on its last feet but lawless pockets in Mogadishu remain to be brought under control.
Ethiopia’s mighty army came to the rescue of the government last year and in April wrested final control of Mogadishu from an Islamist militia that briefly controlled large parts of the country.
The remnants of the fundamentalist Islamic group and its tribal allies have since reverted to street guerrilla tactics, carrying out daily hit-and-run attacks against government targets in the capital.
At least 80 people have been killed in the flashpoint area of Bakara market alone since June, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on reports by hospital sources.
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Tens of thousands of Rastafarians converged on Addis Ababa for a massive concert as part of the celebrations marking Ethiopia’s new millennium.
The Horn of Africa country, which is the cradle of the Rastafari movement, follows a unique version of the Julian calendar and entered its third millennium on September 12, seven years after the rest of the world.
“More than 25 artists mainly from Ethiopia will perform for two days in Meskel Square,” said Ras Kesh Kassaye, one of the organisers, just before the concert kicked off.
He said some 50,000 people were expected to come to listen to rasta artists such a King Kong and Luciano and added that 10 percent of the proceeds would be donated to a millennium-sponsored fund for orphans.
Meskel square is one of the main landmarks in the Ethiopian capital and was where a huge concert marking the 60th anniversary of rasta icon Bob Marley’s birth took place two years ago.
The Rastafari movement accepts Ethiopia’s former emperor Haile Selassie I as a living God. The emperor — who died in 1975 — had invited Rastafarians to settle in Sheshemane, some 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of the capital.
The community still exists and is believed to number around 3,000.
“This millennium has special significance for us Rastas because for 2,000 years, we’ve been told that Jesus was white but his majesty (Haile Selassie) has shown the way and marked a new era,” said Ras Abye Tilahun.
Ras Abye Tilahun is one of the co-organisers and has translated Bob Marley lyrics into the Amharic language.
“Ethiopia was never colonised, it has its own Church… it is the place of Africa’s rebirth,” he added. “We are at the forefront and this is a sign of hope.”
According to the Ethiopian authorities, some 30,000 Rastafarians have travelled from Jamaica and other countries for the concert.
Tens of thousands of Ethiopians from all over the country and the diaspora took part in a concert and other events on the night of September 11 that kicked off the country’s year-long millennium celebrations.
