HUGE GAS POTENTIAL IN EAST AFRICA

The east African region is set to join the worlds gas giants with last week’s announcement of gas finds in Mozambique and Tanzania. These discoveries have pushed exploration to a new height with projections from the U.S. Geological Survey estimating 253 trillion cubic feet of gas may lie off Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique bigger than Africa's biggest energy producer Nigeria which has 186 trillion cubic feet. East Africa has turned to a hotspot for exploration of gas and oil with positive findings of gas in Tanzania, Mozambique and Rwanda while oil has been found in Uganda and Kenya. It is however the gas find that is hitting the scenes with the regions potential far above the oil finds. In Mozambique alone geologist from Anadarko petroleum estimate could have close to 1.4 trillion cubic meters or 50 trillion cubic feet of gas almost as much as Libya’s known reserves. Italian oil group Eni that is carrying out exploration in a neighbouring block estimates even higher reserves of about 52 cubic feet. In Tanzania British gas firm BG Group and explorer Ophir Energy last week said they had found more gas off the coast of Tanzania, raising hopes that the East African country will become a major new gas province. The estimated 3.5 trillion cubic feet is on top of the earlier find of 15 trillion cubic feet of reserves with a potential upside in total find. And although Kenya has not yet positively striked natural gas the positive find in the east African coast has driven up hopes that the entire region could have sufficient quantities. This is on top of the oil deposits find by British firm Tullow oil in Kenya and Uganda which although significant are far below reserves in West Africa. Oil finds in Somalia and Somaliland also project hopes for the region. Estimates of Somalia's reserves, onshore and offshore, go as high as 110 billion barrels of oil. According to analysts good use of the reserves could yield up to 10 billion dollars annually in taxes for the region.