fbpx

Delonex Hopes To Unlock Africa’s Hydrocarbon Potential

Delonex Hopes To Unlock Africa’s Hydrocarbon Potential

London-based Delonex Energy, an exploration and production company, says it will invest $600 million for oil and gas exploration in Ethiopia and other central and East African countries, according to a report in Business Standard.

These regions were chosen for investments following recent discoveries of gas in Mozambique and Tanzania, and of other hydrocarbon findings in Uganda and Kenya, the report said.

The company recently announced an agreement with Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm focusing on promising oil and gas assets in sub-Saharan Africa. Delonex has offices in London, Kenya and India.

Delonex plans to focus mainly on Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Central Africa since the region is still in its early days of exploration, the report says. The entire region, from Central Africa, Chad, South Sudan and Ethiopia down to Mozambique has had about 600 exploration wells dug since the early 1900s, the report said.

Rahul Dhir, CEO of Delonex, is the former CEO of Cairn India.

“According to our findings, the number of wells drilled in Ethiopia for oil and gas explorations is particularly minimal,” Dhir said in the Business Standard report. “We believe, with the application of modern, technological and new drilling techniques, the potential can be tested and hopefully there will be significant discoveries.”

The company is particularly interested in strategic areas like the East African Continental Rift System, which extends from the Red Sea through Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to Mozambique; and the Central African Rift System stretching from Chad to South Sudan and the coastal areas of East Africa, the report says.

According to its website, Delonex Energy‘s team has a track record of results in India, where it claims to have helped reduce the country’s oil imports by $14 billion and contributed $6 billion to the Indian Exchequer.