(Asharq Al-Awsat) This leads us to ask about the oil reserves in Eritrea. How much is this reserve and where have you reached?

(Afeworki) This is a subject that we do not wish to talk about until all the measures are completed and we actually begin. However, I can say that there is a large reserve but we should not talk about this without verifying all the angles for the sake of credibility.

http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=16883

(Asharq Al-Awsat) This leads us to ask about the oil reserves in Eritrea. How much is this reserve and where have you reached?

(Afeworki) This is a subject that we do not wish to talk about until all the measures are completed and we actually begin. However, I can say that there is a large reserve but we should not talk about this without verifying all the angles for the sake of credibility.

http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=16883

Castro,

This is not a new issue, the large oil reserves have been there for a long time, an American company was prospecting for oil just after Eritrea's independence but the deal didn't fall through because the American oil company wanted to own the oil and only wanted to give Eritrea less than 10% of the proceeds, then the company was politely escorted out of the country.

The new exploration project started two years ago and is still continuing and it is not only crude oil but also natural gas (the natural gas is believed to be much larger than anticipated), some of the exploration is being done on land the other under the Red Sea coast of northern Eritrea. This project is being financed 50/50 by the Eritrean government and Energy Alliance, the company will share in the profits but the full ownership of the project is by the Eritrean people.

Eritriawi,

What makes this news different is the fact that it comes from a credible source: The Eritrean President.

Eritriawi,

What makes this news different is the fact that it comes from a credible source: The Eritrean President.

Castro,

You're right about that, the President doesn't embelish the truth, he actually understates it, ever since the 1970s it was a an open secret that from the Irafale pennisula all the way to Mersa Tekai in northeastern Eritrea there was a large oil reserve. The good thing is that the Eritrean government does its homework before messing around with natural resouces. As everyone knows natural resouces can be a curse if not handled carefully. That is why you didn't see the rush to exploit the large mineral reserves of Eritea, it is progressing slowly and in the end the government wants the people of Eritrea to be the primary beneficiaries of their natural resouces unlike the rest of Africa where the people get nothing out of their resouces except for misery, wars and backwardness while big corporations are exploiting their resouces mercilessly.