There are 16 landlocked countries in Africa: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Eswatini (former Swaziland), Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Being landlocked poses issues with the production and export of hydrocarbons but the E&P potential of several of these countries remains high. Most have a history of oil and gas exploration including Coal Bed Methane (CBM), and three are significant oil producers. Published production numbers understandably vary and should be treated with caution.
South Sudan is the biggest landlocked producer in Africa with an estimated production of 160,000 BOPD. However, the country earns lot less from this production due to high evacuation tariff and other fees as the oil passes through Sudan to the ports.
Chad, the largest landlocked country in Africa, produces an estimated 65,000 BOPD with most exported through Cameroon to the coast. Niger is bumping along at around 10,000 BOPD with significant undeveloped discovered resources. Most of the oil is sold domestically and a small amount is exported to northern Nigeria.
Uganda boasts significant oil reserves but is yet to join the list of producers. The country’s first oil discovery was made in 2006 in Lake Albert, but start-up of production has faced an unprecedented series of much publicised delays. However, oil production from the Tilenga project operated by TotalEnergies and the Kingfisher project operated by CNOOC is optimistically expected to start in 2025 and reach a combined 230,000 BOPD according to reports. One of challenges of the project has been how to build the 1,500 km electrically heated pipeline needed to export the crude via Tanzania. When completed it will be the world’s longest heated pipeline.
Ethiopia has a series of gas discoveries in the Ogaden Basin at Calub, Hilala and El-Kuran. China’s Poly-GCL is the operator of the multi-TCF Calub and Hilala fields and has been working on plans for an ambitious pipeline taking the gas across Ethiopia to Djibouti. Poly-GCL is understood to be planning to produce hydrogen in Djibouti from the gas.
There is much anticipation in Zimbabwe with Invictus Energy planning to spud the Mukuyu-1 wildcat in the Cabora Bassa Basin in the third quarter of 2022. It is touted as the largest known undrilled prospect onshore Africa with an independently estimated 20 Tcf and 845 million barrels according to Invictus. Mobil explored the country in the early 1990’s, but Zimbabwe remains undrilled for oil and gas to date.
More recently, Canadian company Reconnaissance Energy Africa (or Recon Africa) announced that it has been granted a petroleum licence in northwestern Botswana contiguous with its Namibia licences. At the same time, in Zambia Geo Petroleum Ltd has secured rights to Block 31 and the transfer of Tullow Oil’s equity to them.
Meanwhile, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Eswatini (former Swaziland), Lesotho, Mali, Malawi and Rwanda have all seen varying levels of interest from the upstream industry. Some of it is stop-start as the smaller companies seek farm-in partners and funding to carry out exploration work. In Malawi, RAK Gas had been planning seismic work over its acreage in the Lake Malawi Graben.
IAN CROSS – MOYES & CO
