Oil Exploration in East Africa

There is not a lot of material available on the history of oil exploration in East Africa but the recent discoveries, both onshore and offshore, have sponsored renewed interest in the early exploration efforts and we need to collect all we can while it is still findable. 

Exploration in East Africa began nearly a century ago but systematic work did not commence until after WW2. My interest has been to provide a broad summary of that history, looking for lessons the past work might offer for the present and future, and to help counter the widespread misinformation about past discoveries and future potential that is underwriting local and regional conflicts.

Exploration summary maps for East Africa, showing the permits and wells for each decade from the 1930/40s to the 2010s, have been used in historical reviews presented to the 2010 APPEX conference in London, the 2012 Geological Society of London East Africa Conference and the 2014 AAPG International Conference in Istanbul. Copies of the permit maps can be downloaded. An interactive article presenting the history of East Africa oil exploration was published in GeoExpro magazine in 2014.

My gathering of old oil exploration reports and photos has been moderately successful in Ethiopia but less so in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. I hope someone will pursue that before too long, lest valuable old historical material will be lost.

Attachments

Oil and Gas Exploration in East Africa: Past Trends and Future Challenges - East Africa Conference, 2012 — 1.1 MB PDF File Download
Oil and Gas Exploration in East Africa: A Brief History - AAPG ICE, 2014 — 5 MB PDF File Download
East Africa Permit Maps 1950 to 2009. — 2.2 MB PDF File Download