Chapter 894 Energy Structure

East Africa is actually the country with the largest natural gas reserves in Africa, but this is also easy to understand. The land of East Africa accounts for about 43% of the total area of ​​Africa. If we follow the pattern of African countries in the previous life, Nigeria ranks first. The current land area of ​​East Africa is indeed bullying compared with Nigeria, which is only more than 900,000 square kilometers.

However, this also indirectly shows that Nigeria's conditions are the best in Africa in the previous life. Coal, natural gas, and oil are all ranked at the forefront of Africa. Other resources are also very rich. In addition, there is vast arable land and no shortage of excellent ports. It is not difficult to understand that it could develop into the largest economy in Africa in the previous life.

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The first town.

"According to the telegram from Bujumbura, my country's first natural gas has been successfully put into operation. This is great good news for my country's energy security pattern." Von der Leyen reported to Ernst and other officials with a smile.

There is no way around it. Since the discovery of Lake Turkana oil, oil exploration in East Africa has not been smooth. Only a few small oil fields have been discovered. On the contrary, a lot of natural gas resources have been discovered during oil exploration, including large-scale natural gas fields in the middle and east.

Of course, according to the layout of East African oil, the current exploration work will naturally not be smooth, because East Africa's oil is mainly distributed in the north and west, and East Africa's development of these two regions has weakened. Many areas have inconvenient transportation, sparse population, and unadvanced equipment. Under the influence of these comprehensive factors, the exploration work will naturally not be smooth.

There is no need to worry too much about this. After all, Ernst knows the overall distribution of East African oil, but there is no need for East Africa to rush for large-scale development at present.

At present, the oil production of Turkana Oil City, plus imports, can basically meet domestic needs. East Africa's oil self-sufficiency rate remains at around 20%. If there is an emergency, it is entirely possible to increase the production capacity of Turkana Oil City in a short period of time to meet the oil demand of East Africa. After all, the demand for oil in various countries in the world is not too high.

"Energy exploration is a long and complicated process. East Africa has a large land area and many resources have not been discovered. Moreover, with the advancement of technology, many resources that cannot be used today may be able to be used in the future." Ernst said.

"Last year, we imported 3 million tons of oil from abroad, of which the Baku oil field in the Caspian Sea of ​​Tsarist Russia accounted for about 35%, Romania accounted for about 30%, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire accounted for about 15%. The rest came from the United States and other countries. my country ranks at least in the top three in the world in terms of oil consumption."

Last year, the oil consumption of East African countries alone was close to 4 million tons, while the current global oil production is only more than 10 million tons, less than 20 million tons, and East Africa's local production has not yet exceeded 1 million tons. From the oil import data, it can be seen that East Africa has an advanced layout in the field of oil industry.

At present, East Africa, or the Black Xingen Consortium, has strategic deployments in Romania and Tsarist Russia, and has invested in and built a large number of oil wells in the local area, especially in Romania, which can account for 30% of the imported oil in East Africa. The main reason is that the Black Xingen Consortium controls a certain share of oil extraction. It should be noted that although Romania has rich oil resources, it is far less than the Baku oil field of Tsarist Russia, and its production capacity is close to about 40% of the world.

"A large amount of oil imports costs a lot of money every year. In my country's energy use, as a power source, it accounts for a higher proportion than other countries. This is mainly because the scale of my country's automobile industry and internal combustion engine field is higher than that of other countries, and as for the chemical industry, it is lower than that of European and American countries."

The application of internal combustion engines in European and American countries is actually weaker than that in East Africa, because European and American countries themselves have the foundation of the first industrial revolution, and steam engines still have a broad application space.

In short, it is the old industry of steam engines that has hindered the development of the internal combustion engine industry in Europe and the United States, especially in the two fields of factories and fuels. Among the two main energy options of coal and oil, East Africa is obviously more inclined to oil.

Of course, East Africa now has a third option, which is natural gas. However, compared with oil and coal, natural gas is not conducive to storage and transportation, so the initial investment and operation cost is higher.

Just like the natural gas power station in Bujumbura, it is equipped with an exclusive natural gas transportation pipeline. If it is only produced by producing special storage containers, it is simply impossible to achieve.

And oil can be packed in barrels, and the air tightness requirements are not high. As for coal, it is even simpler. It is a solid fuel and does not require the production of special containers for transportation.

"Now, the dependence on oil imports is mainly because my country's oil resources are not abundant, and most of them are located in inland areas, and the cost of mining is relatively high. Unlike Romania and Tsarist Russia's oil, it can be directly loaded and shipped nearby. For this reason, we specially built the Turkana Railway."

The two main purposes of the Turkana Railway at that time were border trade with the Abyssinian Empire and the transportation of Turkana oil to the south.

"Therefore, the development and utilization of natural gas is of great significance to my country's economic and energy development. In the future, my country will work harder in the field of natural gas popularization, including natural gas power generation, residential fuel, and chemical industry. There is a certain demand."

Everyone agrees with the application of natural gas in power generation and chemical industry, but many people twitched their lips when it comes to residential fuel.

Although they have seen the actual objects and usage demonstrations of gas stoves and gas tanks, there are still some psychological barriers to their acceptance of natural gas.

After all, if an accident happens to that thing, it is no different from a bomb. One tank of gas can destroy a kitchen without any problem, and there is great danger if there is a leak, not to mention the explosion.

Ernst naturally saw the wonderful expressions on the faces of East African officials, but after using natural gas, people will only say that it smells really good.

As a clean energy, it does not produce a lot of smoke when burning like other fuels other than electricity, and it occupies a small space. A tank of natural gas can burn for a long time, which has more advantages than disadvantages, especially in terms of experience.

In addition to natural gas, the application of electricity in East African kitchens has also appeared. For example, the magic tool of rice cookers has been popularized in a certain number of urban families in East Africa. It is very convenient to use it to steam rice and cook porridge. In addition to rice cookers, the most commonly used household appliance in East African kitchens is kettles.

"Natural gas does have certain safety hazards, but it is more of a psychological effect. Some people think that gas cylinders are very risky, but more than a hundred years have passed since the British invented gas cylinders. Before the advent of electricity, the lighting system at that time used a large number of gas cylinders to store natural gas for gas lamps. Therefore, as long as the process standards are strictly followed and the production is carried out according to the standard process, there is no need to worry about safety performance." Ernst said.

Of course, that's what I said, but whether everyone is at ease is another matter, but according to the experience of the past life, as long as it is promoted, there will basically be no major problems in the future.

"In the national energy structure, the four major categories of oil, electricity, coal, and natural gas are the key targets for East Africa in the future. Although we are not short of coal, the utilization rate is too low. You must know that the quality of coal in East Africa is the best in the world, so we must continue to improve and perfect the process and technology."