East Africa is actually the country with the largest natural gas reserves in Africa, which is understandable considering that its land accounts for about 43% of the entire continent. If we look at the previous world's African country framework, Nigeria ranks first, but comparing the current land area of East Africa with Nigeria's mere 900,000 square kilometers really seems unfair.

However, this also indirectly shows that Nigeria had the best conditions among African countries in the previous world, with coal, natural gas, and oil ranking among the top in Africa. Other resources are also plentiful, coupled with vast arable land and the lack of shortage in excellent ports, which makes it understandable why it became the largest economy in Africa in the previous world.

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First Town.

"According to the telegraph message from Bujumbura, the first natural gas facility in our country has successfully been put into operation. This is great news for our energy security landscape," said Von der Leyen with a smile, reporting to Ernst and other officials.

This is something unavoidable since the discovery of oil at Lake Turkana. Oil exploration across East Africa hasn't been smooth, only a few small oil fields were found. On the contrary, lots of natural gas resources have been discovered during oil searches, including noteworthy gas fields in the central and eastern parts.

Of course, according to the oil layout in East Africa, the current exploration won't be smooth because oil mainly distributed in the north and west has been weakened in development in East Africa; many regions have inconvenient transportation, sparse population, and undeveloped equipment. Under these comprehensive influences, exploration work naturally won't be smooth.

For this point, there is no need to be overly concerned. After all, Ernst knows the overall distribution of oil in East Africa, though currently, there is no necessity for large-scale development in East Africa.

The current oil production of Turkana Oil City, plus imports, can basically meet domestic needs. East Africa's self-sufficiency rate in oil is maintained at around 20%. If unexpected situations arise, it is entirely possible to temporarily increase the production capacity of Turkana Oil City to meet the oil demand across East Africa, since the global demand for oil is not particularly high at present.

"Energy exploration is a long and complex process. East Africa's vast territory has many undiscovered resources, and as technology advances, many resources currently unusable may have utilization value in the future," said Ernst.

"Last year, we imported three million tons of oil from abroad, with about 35% from Tsarist Russia in Baku, Caspian Sea oil fields, around 30% from Romania, 15% from Austria-Hungary, and the rest from countries like the United States; in the field of oil consumption, our country is at least in the top three in the world."

Last year, East Africa's oil consumption approached four million tons, whereas the global oil production was only about ten million tons, less than twenty million tons; East Africa's domestic production has not broken one million tons yet. These import volume data in oil evidently show East Africa's advanced layout in the oil industry.

Currently in East Africa, or rather Heixinggen consortium in Romania and Tsarist Russia has several strategic deployments, investing heavily in oil wells locally, especially in Romania, which can occupy a 30% share in East African oil imports, primarily because Heixinggen consortium controls a certain share of oil extraction, knowing that although Romania's oil resources are rich, they are far less than Tsarist Russia's Baku oil fields, whose production capacity is nearing 40% of the world's.

"The massive oil imports every year are a heavy financial burden; in our country's energy use, as a source of power, its ratio is higher than in other countries, mainly because our automotive and internal combustion engine industry scale is larger than in other countries, as for the chemical industry, it is less than Europe and America."

The application of internal combustion vehicles in Europe and America is indeed weaker compared to East Africa, because Europe and America have the heritage of the First Industrial Revolution, leaving steam engines with vast application space.

Simply put, the old steam engine industry has impeded the development of the internal combustion engine industry in Europe and America, especially in the two fields of factory and fuel; in the choice between coal and oil, East Africa is noticeably more inclined towards oil.

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

As in the Bujumbura natural gas power station, equipped with a dedicated natural gas pipeline; solely relying on the production of specialized storage containers wouldn't be feasible.

While oil only needs to be barreled, it requires no high airtightness, and coal is even simpler as it's a solid fuel needing no specialized containers for transportation.

"Currently, the dependence on oil imports is mainly due to the country's oil resources not being abundant, with most located inland and the extraction costs being relatively high, unlike oil directly adjacent to shipping routes in Romania and Tsarist Russia, compelling the construction of the Turkana railway."

The primary two purposes of the Turkana railway at the time were border trade with the Abyssinia Empire and transporting oil south from Turkana.

"Therefore, the development and utilization of natural gas hold extreme importance for our economic and energy development; in the future, our country should put more effort into natural gas popularization areas including natural gas power generation, residential fuel, and chemical industry needs."

For the application of natural gas in power generation and chemical fields, everyone agrees in their hearts, but many people had a slight twitch at the corner of their mouths regarding residential fuel.

Although they had seen actual items and demonstrations of gas stoves and gas cylinders, there still exist psychological barriers for everyone to accept natural gas.

After all, if accidents occur, it's like a bomb with no difference; a cylinder can take out a whole kitchen completely, and not to mention explosion, just leakage alone poses tremendous danger.

For the wonderful expressions on the faces of East African officials, Ernst naturally took note, but for such things as natural gas, one only bears to say how delightful it truly is after use.

As clean energy, its combustion doesn't generate massive smoke like other fuels besides electricity, consuming little space; one cylinder can burn for a long time, with advantages outweighing disadvantages, especially in experiential comparison where it surpasses other energies.

Aside from natural gas, electricity application in East African kitchens has also begun appearing; for example, the electric rice cooker, such a magical device, has a certain level of popularity in urban East African households, convenient for cooking rice and porridge; besides the electric rice cooker, the most common electrical appliance in East African kitchens is the kettle.

"Natural gas does present certain safety risks, but it's more a psychological aspect; some consider gas cylinders as highly risky, but since the British invented gas cylinders over a hundred years have passed; before the advent of electricity, the lighting systems extensively used gas cylinders for natural gas storage for gas lamps, so as long as adhering to stringent process standards and standard production flows, safety performance doesn't need worrying at all," Ernst said.

Of course, while these words are said, whether everyone feels reassured is another matter, but based on previous lives' experiences, as long as it's promoted widely then there wouldn't be major problems after.

"In the national energy landscape, oil, electricity, coal, and natural gas are the four major classes that East Africa will focus on advancing in the future; while coal is not lacking, its utilization rate is too low; knowing that East African coal quality is the finest in the world range hence continuing to improve and refine on technology and craft."