First oil shipment goes to Chinese glass factory near Jomo

The first batch of the Poly GCL Petroleum Group Holdings Limited’s Hilala light crude oil was delivered to Hansom Glass Factory, on Friday on July 6, 2018.
The Quadrant Investment Group plc, a logistics company, started transporting the crude oil to Addis Ababa from Hilala which is almost 1,200 km from Addis Ababa.
Dawit Shiberu, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Quadrant, has confirmed that his company delivered the first batch of crude oil to a Chinese glass factory located at the south west edge of Addis Ababa around Jomo.
It was on June 28 that the official extraction of the crude oil was inaugurated in Ogaden, Somali region, in  the presence of federal and regional representatives and the Poly-GCL Petroleum Group.
It has been reported that the crude oil will be delivered to the heavy industries that need more energy. Accordingly factories like cement, glass and steel are likely destinations. These companies have been importing the product from abroad.
Crude oil production has a volume of 450 barrels a day, which is a capacity for a single fuel tank truck.
According to Dawit, the country commenced 450 barrel testing crude oil production.
“It is a good success for the country since it can replace imports,” he said.
Dawit told Capital that the transportation of a daily production takes two days on the road, which is mostly asphalt.
It is expected that the next transportation of the crude oil will be to Derba Midro Cement and Sino Steel factories.
Derba Cement is located at Muger Valley, 68km north-west of Addis Ababa. The recently established Chinese steel factory Sino is located around Sheno 79km north east of the capital.
About 27 companies have been competing to handle the transportation but only two are shortlisted including Quadrant, which was established in Ethiopia in 2010.
The company is mainly engaged in the logistics service and is also known for its camp construction and management, remote catering and waste management services. It has been working in logistics support with several mining companies mainly those engaged in gas and oil exploration including Tullow, New Age and Gasprom.
The amount of gas reserve discovered by Poly-GCL is estimated to be 6 to 8 Trillion Cubic Feet. Poly-GCL is a company formed by the China POLY Group and GCL Group to develop oil and gas projects in Ethiopia. Poly-GCL is undertaking further exploration at the area to know the total reserve oil at the location. The natural gas is expected to be transported via pipeline to Djibouti, a place where the natural gas refinery will be built and exported to the world market. The company is also considering forming a micro refinery to change the crude on different petroleum products.
A company owned by Dawit, Newera Mining PLC, is also involved in the mining industry. It has agreed with the government to be the first large scale miner in the silica sand production, which is an industrial input for bottle and glass factories.