East and Southern Africa

View International Scout posts for East and Southern Africa

East and Southern Africa provides significant opportunities for exploration led companies. The region had been virtually written off for several decades, but in the last five years world class discoveries have been made in the Rift Valleys of Uganda and offshore in the deeper waters offshore Mozambique and Tanzania.

Fewer than 600 exploration wells have been drilled in the region, compared to over 33,000 in the rest of Africa. The latest wave of exploration has been underpinned by accurate and focussed geophysical data acquisition, which has yielded higher than average success rates, even though many parts of the region have complex structural histories.

In the Rift Valleys and other onshore basins, airborne gravity and magnetic data has enabled operating groups to target seismic surveys on the most prospective parts of the basins, reducing the need to extensive 2D surveys and significantly reducing costs. Offshore, the acquisition of extensive, high quality 3D seismic imaging has spearhead exploration in the deeper water areas offshore Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya and yielded even higher success rates.

Several licensing rounds are expected to be held in East and Southern Africa in the near future, and the delineation of new blocks throughout the region should ensure that exploration levels continue to increase over the forthcoming years.

Expanding economies in Asia will undoubtedly provide the biggest market opportunities for East African gas. But growing domestic demands and the need for diversification away from biofuels could also stimulate smaller scale projects in some countries. The economic potential of the Karoo shales is being investigated as an alternative energy source in South Africa and companies have also started to look for other alternative hydrocarbon sources across the region, including coalbed methane developments, heavy oil projects and even the harnessing of lake gas.

Countries in the East and Southern Africa Region

• Botswana
• Burundi
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Cosoros
• Djibouti
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Juan De Nova
• Kenya
• Lesotho
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mauritius
• Mayotte
• Mozambique
• Rwanda
• Seychelles
• Somalia
• Somalia Puntland
• Somaliland
• South Africa
• Sudan
• South Sudan
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe