Ogaden Basin

I first worked in the Ogaden Basin in SE Ethiopia in 1973-77 for Whitestone Petroleum and it seems to have been part of my life ever since.  Back then, I organized gravity, magnetic and geology surveys and wrote a few papers about the gravity anomalies and the Marda Fault Zone.  After I left I wrote the petroleum chapter for a UN publication on Ethiopia’s mineral resources but a larger compilation on the basin geology went unfinished (my draft maps were confiscated by the Ethiopian security people because of the war in the Ogaden) but the 1979 draft is available –though very out of date.    

I went back to Ethiopia in 1992-3 after the civil war ended, trying (unsuccessfully) to initiate an exploration venture in the Ogaden, involving British and Australian companies.

In 2004 Petronas Carigali contracted P&R to run their Joint Ogaden Basin Study project (JOBS) with the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines Petroleum Department.     In 2005 I introduced Malaysian company Pexco to the basin and ended up running their Ethiopia operation until late 2008.

My interests in the basin are the sedimentary geology and petroleum potential but also the exploration history, the paleogeography and the volcanism.  I had hoped to compile updated summaries of the Ogaden basin stratigraphy and the palaeogeography of the Horn of Africa, but time and other projects have overtaken this ambition and it now looks unlikely. I am, however, always happy to discuss the basin with other geologists working there or in adjacent basins.

Attachments

The Marda Fault Zone, Ethiopia, Nature, Vol 261, No 5561 — 178.6 KB PDF File Download
The Geology and Petroleum Potential of the Ogaden Basin, Ethiopia - P.G. Purcell, 1979 — 2.2 MB PDF File Download
The importance of National Geoscientific Data Policy and Geological Surveys in Mineral Exploration Success - the Australian Experience. — 153.5 KB PDF File Download
Phanerozoic Sedimentary History and Petroleum Potential of Ethiopia. EIGS UN Bulletin. — 302.4 KB PDF File Download
Landscape and Landforms of the Ogaden, SE Ethiopia. — 1.8 MB PDF File Download
The Volcanic Geomorphology of Southeast Ethiopia. — 8.3 MB PDF File Download