East Africa is next hot oil zone

UPI ^ | 3/10/2010 | UPI

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

East Africa is emerging as the next oil boom following a big strike in Uganda's Lake Albert Basin. Other oil and natural gas reserves have been found in Tanzania and Mozambique and exploration is under way in Ethiopia and even war-torn Somalia. The region, until recently largely ignored by the energy industry, is "the last real high-potential area in the world that hasn't been fully explored," says Richard Schmitt, chief executive officer of Dubai's Black Marlin Energy, which is prospecting in East Africa.

The discovery at Lake Albert, in the center of Africa between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, is estimated to contain the equivalent of several billion barrels of oil. It is likely to be the biggest onshore field found south of the Sahara Desert in two decades.

Tullow Oil, the British exploration company backed by a $1.4 billion loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland, says its Ngassa field in Uganda may be the biggest find in the Lake Albert Basin to date with up to 600 million barrels.

Tullow has discovered reserves equivalent to around 2 billion barrels of oil in Uganda in the last four years. Most of the initial finds in East Africa were made by independent wildcatters like Tullow and another British firm, Heritage Oil, run by former mercenary Tony Buckingham.

Now the majors are moving in. Heritage recently sold its 50 percent share in two Lake Albert Basin fields to Eni of Italy for $1.5 billion.

[familyop]

East Africa? Oh, that’s going to be stable. ;-)

[count-your-change]

Now the fighting will be done with the latest armaments rather than rusty surplus. The battle over diamonds may seem like a family argument compared to fighting over oil billions. whoa boy!

[gov_bean_ counter]

Well yeah, duh. You heat that magma up to one million degrees and what else did you expect to get??? :)

[Waco]

The last really high potential area is usually called the USA, the Bakken area is estimated have reserves 8 times that of Saudi Rabia,,,,,did you hear that batman?

[Recon Dad]

Texas Jack, we need a good oil, energy ping list started here on FR!
There are a lot of folks who have a lot of direct knowledge on these subjects.
I receive news on a daily basis covering oil sands, shale, NG and new oil finds from around the world and I find it a fascinating subject.

[combat_boots]

Then add me to such a ping list

[Venturer]

The United States of America could be the next oil boom if the idiots in Washington got off their Green kick and woke up to the fact that we have enough oil right here to be independent of the worlds sources other than ourselves.

[Senator John Blutarski]

.... This suggests that - wonder of wonders - the world may not actually be destined to run out of oil in the next century.

What bloviating prevaricators our environmental fanatics seem to be.

[Recon Dad]

I'll figure it out (probably some time before computers go obsolete)

[Sarajevo]

East Africa? Oh, that’s going to be stable.

As in Rift Valley earthquake zone or ........the natives' proclivity to play with dull machete's?

[thackney]

I use the keywords instead of ping list for energy and specifically oil topics. Then you need no keeper of the ping list and anyone can add a related thread.

[Sequoyah101]

Drilled Madagascar nearly 30 years ago. Lots of gas, very hot rocks. No oil, rocks pretty much cooked.

Rift valley, maybe so. Sir Thomas Gold may be right. I have seen many locations that support his theories. North Dakota is not one of them though.

Money for the politicians has a way of parting the dull machetes (see Nigeria, Algeria, Congo, Angola etc.) Cabinda existed as a protected island during the Angolan Civil War as does Hassi Massoud in Algeria now.

[familyop]

"As in Rift Valley earthquake zone or ........the natives' proclivity to play with dull machete's?"

As in what happens politically in parts of Africa, when lucrative natural resources are harvested. Tanzania was mentioned in the article. Nigeria has been known to be more civil.