China’s Poly Group plans Ethiopia natural gas exports by mid-2019

Bloomberg

China Poly Group plans to start exporting natural gas from Ethiopia’s eastern Ogaden basin by mid-2019 as it continues to explore near the border with
Somalia, Petroleum Minister Motuma Mekassa said.
Shipments from the Calub and Hilala fields will be exported along a 700-kilometer (435-mile) pipeline to a port complex being built in neighboring Djibouti, Motuma said in an interview in the capital, Addis Ababa. “They want to export the gas to Asia,” Motuma said.
Ethiopia is developing gas finds to diversify its $72.3 billion economy, the fastest-growing in Africa over the past decade. The Horn of Africa nation plans to increase natural resources’ contribution to gross domestic product to 10 percent from 1.5 percent by 2025, when it expects to become a middle-income country with gross national income per capita of $1,045 to $12,736.
POLY-GCL Petroleum Group, a partnership between China Poly and closely held Hong Kong-based Golden Concord Group, signed five production-sharing agreements with Ethiopia’s Mines Ministry in 2013 to explore a 117,151 square-kilometer area in the Ogaden basin, according to Motuma.
The project is being financed by the China Development Bank, according to Motuma, who declined to provide a cost estimate, citing continuing work by POLY-GCL and its sub-contractors. At least 4.5 trillion cubic feet of gas has so far been discovered in the fields, he said, citing an analysis by POLY-GCL.
Ethiopian soldiers are providing security around the five blocks owned by POLY-GCL, Motuma said. In April 2007, an Ethiopian rebel group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front, attacked a site operated by China’s Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, killing nine Chinese workers and 65 Ethiopians.
A tripartite agreement on the pipeline is expected to be signed by representatives of Djibouti, Ethiopia and POLY-GCL “in the coming weeks,” Djibouti Ports & Free Zones Authority Chairman Aboubaker Omar Hadi said by phone from Tokyo.
POLY-GCL’s first exports of 3 million cubic meters of LNG per year are planned to start within 30 months when the new port in Djibouti is expected to be operational, he said. The shipments are expected to increase to 6 million cubic meters in the port’s second year of operations, Hadi said. The port will include a gas liquefaction plant.