oa Keynote Presentation: Offshore East Africa: An Unfolding Geological Story

In the 1960’s oil and gas exploration almost entirely ceased offshore East Africa and underwent a hiatus of several decades the common perception being there was limited potential for encountering commercial hydrocarbons when compared with other parts of the world.

Since the early part of the twenty first century with the encouragement of National oil companies and governments and with the application of new concepts, ideas and technologies, offshore East Africa has emerged as a significant gas province. This Initial success has allowed high potential exploration plays to be identified and new exploration ideas to be generated and pursued as our understanding of the basins has increased.

This presentation aims to present the historical context of exploration East Africa, examine the keys to the recent success, look at how our increased understanding has led us to focus on new plays and highlight some of the remaining subsurface challenges.