Cameroon discovers 20 mln barrels of oil

Cameroon has discovered 20 million barrels of oil reserves in the south-western region of Rio del Rey, the state controlled National Hydrocarbons Company (SNH) has said. The oil reserves were discovered by Addax, a subsidiary of the Chinese petroleum company Sinopec. A joint statement signed by the director general of SNH Adolphe Moudiki and Addax CEO Yi Zhang, noted that the oil reserves were found in six hydrocarbon reservoirs within the Rio del Rey basin. "The reserves are estimated to contain 20 million barrels of oil and 200 billion cubic feet of gas. These estimates of the volume of petroleum do not include the additional reserves that are likely to be discovered during the valuation phase which is scheduled to take place in 2013," the statement issued in Yaounde on Saturday indicated. Through this huge discovery of oil deposits, SNH expressed joy over the possibility of reviving oil production which had reduced to 63,211 barrels per day as compared to the 2009 production of 73, 094 barrels per day. The state owned company attributed the drop to "the depletion of the natural oil fields and the ageing of the production equipment as well as the postponement of the development of some oil fields due to the international financial crisis."