Oil Exploration in Ethiopia

My interests in the history of oil exploration in Ethiopia are two-fold: firstly, collecting old photographs of the early oil exploration and, secondly, as time permits, writing something of a memoir about the early oil exploration, based on material collected and information from early workers.

I became interested in the history of petroleum exploration in Ethiopia’s Ogaden Basin while first working there in the mid 1970s and began collecting old reports and photos, some of which were presented at the time to the Geological Survey and the Institute of Ethiopia Studies. While working there again in 2000s and realizing that there was still little historical material available, I renewed efforts to locate photos of the early exploration from private and company collections, and library and museum archives.  The   collection currently has about 80 photographs, ranging from the Dudley Expedition in 1920 to Emperor Haile Selassie at the Tenneco Calub gas discovery in the 1970s to modern times. Volume 1 of the collection was presented to the Ministry of Mines in September 2015.  A presentation to the Petroleum Department, using the photos from Volume 1, is available below. 

I would very much like to hear from anyone with links to Ethiopia or Somalia material from Sinclair Petroleum, who were in Ethiopia in 1949-58.  William Cliff and Hall Taylor were their key geologists but I have not been able to locate their descendants or private papers. I am also trying to locate the family of the Late Dr Artur Roll, Chief Research Geologist with Gewerkschaft Elwerath. Dr Roll’s inactive website lists many photos from Ethiopia but, for reasons unknown, none of his Ethiopia photos were among the many photos he bequeathed to the Munich Zoology Museum.

Attachments

Ethiopia Oil Exploration Photographic History Volume 1. — 14.9 MB PDF File Download