Ministry of Mines Natural Gas and Petroleum says it has assured the economic feasibility of natural gas and it is working to develop it in Ogaden making agreements with various mine exploring companies.
Minister of mines natural gas and petroleum, Motuma Maekassa says currently, there is a good opportunity for Ethiopia to utilize effectively the explored natural resources in Ogaden having good mining policies and regulations.
There is a plenty of natural resource in mine sector, but still now Ethiopia has not developed this resource due to various reasons, now the nation is performing better to benefit from it, he added.
The minister indicated that still now,the the benefit from mine sector for the nation’s economy is very less which is estimated to only two percent of the nation’s economy. when we see other countries the sector covers fifty up to sixty percent of national economy, he noted.
He stressed that currently the government is working by its effort to utilize mine and natural gas resources giving due attention for the sector to develop and utilize in short period of time.
“The resource is in our hand, we can use it in the future. It is better to use properly in the future as its untapped resource in Ethiopia.”
According to him the resource must be utilized with due attention to interest conflicts which faced other countries to exploit it for country’s development with presence of better opportunities depending on various country’s best experiences.
“The exploration period has taken more than seventy years. The termination of exploring was a short period of time, but it takes much time to develop. However, currently natural gas has been explored and developing to get the product in near future.”
