Discovery of Oil
As of 2009, no oil has been found in the Ogaden. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has been quoted as estimating that Ethiopia has 428,000 barrels of crude oil reserves. However, experts believe the real prize is the estimated 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. This potential has drawn large companies such as Petronas from Malaysia and Lundin Petroleum, based in Sweden, to the inhospitable and nearly roadless Ogaden. Various media sources have wrongly stated that there is oil in Ogaden but there has been no oil discovery in the Ogaden. Contrary to popular claims, the Ogaden region is a resource poor desert and has lacked development for centuries under nomadic tribes that the federal Ethiopian government receives virtually little income from the region. Due to the nomadic nature of the natives and due to the ONLF insurgency, the current Ethiopian government is said to spend very high amount of budget for the infrastructure development of the Ogaden region despite the government getting proportionally very low tax revenue from the locals.
Read more about this topic: Ogaden National Liberation Front
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