By Kaleyesus Bekele

The Malaysian oil company, Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), which is prospecting for oil and gas reserves in the Ogaden basin, south eastern part of Ethiopia, is demobilizing its drilling crew. Following the announcement of Petronas to cut back on overseas exploration projects, there is prevalent speculation that the company will pull out from Ethiopia. Previously, Petronas relinquished its concession in the Gambella basin, south-western part of Ethiopia, near the Sudanese border, after drilling two exploration wells that turned out dry. Another exploration well drilled by the company last year in the Ogaden basin in the Genale locality also turned out to be dry.

In addition to Petronas's recent announcement to cut back on overseas exploration project and concentrate on exploration works in Malaysia, the security problem in the Ogaden has made the public to speculate that the company would pull out from Ethiopia.

A senior official at the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MoME) denied the rumor to the effect that Petronas was to abandon its exploration blocks in the Ogaden. The official told The Reporter that the company does not have a plan to withdraw from Ogaden. “After drilling the second well in the Ogaden basin near the Hilala gas field, the company suspended work on the field with the view to interpreting and analyzing the data obtained from the well,” the official said.

According to the official, based on the seismic data collected in the exploration areas, the company drilled one well at Genale (Genale 1) and another one at Hilala (Hilala 4) and currently, the company has decided to suspend the drilling work and study the results obtained so far.

A Dubai-based company called Weather Ford was subcontracted by Petronas to do seismic and drilling works in the Ogaden basin and drilled the two exploration wells in Genale 1 and Hilala 4. “After analyzing the results, executives of Petronas will deliberate on continuing the exploration work and they will also identify the locations where more exploration wells will be drilled,” the official said.

The senior official of MoME said that Weather Ford, which accomplished its task, was demobilizing its drilling rig and other machineries from Ogaden to the Port of Djibouti. “Since there will not be drilling work that will be undertaken by Petronas in the near future, it is not viable to keep the drilling crew and machineries idle, which are expensive. So the subcontractor is leaving but will come back when Petroans is ready for another round of drilling work,” he concluded.