User:Rybec/SouthWest Energy Ltd

SouthWest Energy Ltd is an oil exploration company based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and registered in Hong Kong. Formed in 2005, it is the first and only Ethiopian company to successfully obtain an energy concession in Ethiopia.

History
Tewodros Ashenafi, who serves as Chairman and CEO of the company, founded SouthWest Energy in 2005.

Blocks 9, 9A and 13
In December 2005, SouthWest Energy signed a production sharing agreement (PSA) with the Ethiopian government’s Ministry of Mines and Energy for blocks 9 and 13, covering 21,000 square kilometers, in Ethiopia’s Ogaden Basin. In August 2008 SouthWest Energy was awarded a further 8,000 square kilometers  for block 9A, bringing the total acreage to 29,000 kilometers. SouthWest has invested $50 million in the region, with an additional $150 million over the next three years.

Petronas deal
In 2010, SouthWest agreed to the purchase of 100% of Petronas’s – a Malaysian state run oil company – interests in blocks 3, 4, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, and 20 in the Ogaden Basin. In July 2011 the Ethiopian Government intervened in the deal, reaching an agreement with Petronas where all the blocks reverted to the Government. The blocks were later subject to a bidding round and were awarded to Chinese company PetroTrans.

Gambela Region
On January 9, 2012, SouthWest announced that it had signed a PSA with the Ethiopian government for exploration of oil and gas in the Gambela Region, in southwestern Ethiopia. The agreement gave SouthWest the right to conduct exploration operations on a block that covers almost 17,000 km. This concession made SouthWest one of the largest acreage holders in East Africa.

ONLF conflict
The rebel group Ogaden National Liberation Front has waged a 28-year campaign for self-determination in the Ogaden region. In April 2007, the group attacked an exploration site operated by China’s Exploration Bureau, killing 74 people, including nine Chinese workers. Since then, the company has recorded no security incidents while surveying the Ogaden Basin, after logging more than one million man-hours.

Competent persons report
In April 2013, Southwest Energy released a competent persons report compiled by UK energy services company, Senergy. The report states that SouthWest’s blocks have oil reserve potential between 1.59 billion and 2.9 billion barrels. The estimate is based on its licenses for 24 potential oil and gas traps across its acreage. Senergy described the blocks as “frontier but potentially high-reward oil exploration acreage.” SouthWest Energy began preprations to drill three wells during 2013 and 2014 in its Jijiga Basin blocks, on the border with Somalia. Similar geologies in Yemen could make Ethiopia into a 400,000 barrels a day producer. SouthWest also aims to become the first indigenous company to make a basin-opening discovery in sub-Saharan Africa. The Chairman and CEO, Tewodros Ashenafi said: “The report confirms what we have always believed; our blocks have strong oil potential.”