Ethiopian Prime Minster Abiy Ahmed announced that Ethiopia will begin extracting crude oil starting tomorrow on a test basis in the Somali region of the country.
The Premier made the announcement during his meeting with the representatives of Poly-GCL Petroleum Investment Limited today.
The company will start production test of 450 barrels of crude oil per day as of June 28, 2018, the Prime Minister said.
According to the Premier, the production test took into account the current capacity of the country.
However, efforts will be made to produce crude oil with full potential in the future, thereby, alleviating unemployment and foreign currency shortage.
As far as natural gas extraction is concerned, the Premier said construction of a pipeline will be launched next September to export gas to Djibouti.
The construction of the pipeline will take two years.
Ethiopia will earn 8 billion US dollars annually once it begins exporting natural gas with its full capacity, he said.
Ethiopia and Poly-GCL Petroleum Investment Limited signed agreements in 2013 to explore natural gas in the Ogaden basin.
