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January 5, 2015 Nyasa Times Reporter Featured, National
Oil in Lake Malawi: Hamra analysing dataJanuary 5, 2015 Nyasa Times Reporter Featured, NationalThere could be oil and also gas both inside and outside the Lake Malawi as United Arab Emirates' Hamra Oil Holdings Limited (HOHL) hashinted after its oil exploration using a full tensor gravity gradiometry (FTG) survey.
The London-based company Surestream Petroleum was the first to be granted a licence to explore for oil in Malawi in 2011 and it has aminority stakes in Hamra.
Then Hamra Oil joined with other three other companies, Rakgas of the United Arab Emirates, Pacific Oil and Gas of Singapore and theSouth African company SacOil have also been granted licences for prospecting.
A Lilongwe-based Hamra director Ben Chiza Mkandawire confirmed that the company has completed the first phase of oil exploration andthey are still analysing the FTG data ahead of a possible seismic survey.
"What we have managed to get is giving us confidence that there are oil tracks in Lake Malawi," Chiza-Mkandawire said as his companyhired Bell GeoSpace-a world leader in FTGs-to carry out the study using an airplane that flew over the blocks covering Karonga, Rumphi,Nkhata Bay and Nkhotakota.Chiza Mkandawire, however, said once full results of exploration are out, he was sure the Malawi Government-as the custodian of naturalresources in the country-would make appropriate announcements.
Malawi government is yet to discuss the FTG results with Hamra Oil, according toSecretary for Natural Resources, Energy and Mining BenBotolo .
Oil prospecting was delayed by a row withneighbouring Tanzania, which claims half of the lake, and of the potential oil reserves as its own.But, as prospecting work takes off, locals arealready worrying about how its discovery couldchange their lives.
More than 1.5 million Malawians living on theshores of the lake, which measures nearly 30000 square kilometres, depend on fishing fortheir livelihoods.Representatives of the oil industry say oil can beextracted without danger to the lake, whichhome to hundreds of fish species unique to thatplace, as well as a popular tourist attraction.
Ben Chiza Mkandawire Hamra OilLake Malawi oil Surestreams PetroleumChiza Mkandawire: