The Ethiopian authorities lately shelved plans to pipe pure fuel from the Ogaden Basin to Djibouti due to monetary constraints and mission delays. However posts circulating on Fb declare to point out the continuing development of Ethiopia’s export pipeline. Nonetheless, that is false: the video exhibits a compilation of unrelated clips, together with footage from India and Australia. Building on the deliberate Ogaden-Djibouti pipeline by no means began.
An Amharic submit revealed on Fb and shared greater than 480 occasions reads: “Wonderful Ethiopian pipeline that transports fuel to the port.”
Screenshot of the false submit, taken on July 4, 2025
The submit, revealed on June 27, 2025, features a 30-second video that exhibits the development of assorted pipelines and refineries whereas a male voice narrates within the background.
“Ethiopia is constructing a big fuel pipeline that can transport fuel from the Ogaden Basin for export,” the narrator says.
Ogaden Basin is present in Ethiopia’s Somali area and holds important reserves of crude oil and pure fuel.
“The fuel pipeline is 767 kilometres lengthy and connects the fuel on to the Purple Sea for transport,” the video’s narrator provides. “The development of the pipeline, which was interrupted a number of occasions previously, has now been resumed at full capability.”
He additional claims that the pipeline is being constructed by a Chinese language firm and can transport greater than 12 billion cubic meters of pure fuel yearly.
Related posts had been additionally shared right here and right here on Fb.
Ethiopian fuel
Ethiopia has been actively exploring oil and pure fuel in partnership with Chinese language corporations.
Early makes an attempt had been marred by tragedy when, in 2007, greater than 65 Ethiopians and Chinese language employees had been killed by Ethiopian rebels from the Ogaden Nationwide Liberation Entrance (ONLF) at an oil discipline within the Ogaden Basin (archived right here).
In 2018, following the election of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia trialled the manufacturing of crude oil for the primary time from two reserves within the Ogaden Basin — the Kalub and Hilala fields within the japanese a part of the nation (archived right here).
The exploration and manufacturing of each pure fuel and crude oil within the Ogaden Basin have been carried out in partnership with the Chinese language firm Poly-GCL Petroleum Funding Restricted.
In 2019, Ethiopia and Djibouti signed a multi-billion greenback settlement to put down a 760-kilometre-long pure fuel pipeline from Kalub and Hilala to Djibouti Port (archived right here).
Nonetheless, the video doesn’t present this proposed mission.
Nonexistent pipelines
Key phrase searches reveal that the pipeline’s development by no means obtained off the bottom.
AFP Reality Test discovered a speech Abiy gave to parliament in early June 2025 when he stated the nation would start fuel manufacturing for home use in September (archived right here).
His announcement adopted the Might 2025 launch of a 41-page report titled “Ethiopian Power Outlook 2025” through which the Ministry of Water and Power confirmed that the federal government has cancelled the deliberate pure fuel extraction within the Ogaden area and a pipeline mission to Djibouti for export as liquefied pure fuel (archived right here).
In accordance with the report, the cancellation was a results of monetary constraints and delays in mission implementation in addition to a shift towards home consumption.
On June 28, 2025, native media reported that the choice to terminate the pure fuel pipeline mission was already taken in 2022 and solely lately made public (archived right here).
Unrelated movies
AFP Reality Test additionally used the video verification device InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse picture searches on keyframes from the video.
The search outcomes included a hyperlink to an Instagram video exhibiting the Arab Crude Oil Pipeline Challenge in India, involving a 489-kilometre pipeline connecting Mundra in Gujarat to the Barmer refinery in Rajasthan.
It was posted by Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd, the corporate chargeable for setting up the pipeline (archived right here).
Additional searches revealed a part of the footage was additionally revealed by the identical firm on YouTube in October 2023 (archived right here).
AFP Reality Test matched screengrabs from the unique Instagram video to frames from the clip within the false submit.
Screenshots of the orginal video (left) and the false submit, taken on July 7, 2025
The search outcomes additional revealed that different elements of the false video had been taken from footage of the “Fortescue River Gasoline Pipeline Building Challenge” revealed on YouTube in February 2015 (archived right here).
The mission noticed the development of a 270 kilometre pipeline connecting the Dampier Bunbury Pure Gasoline Pipeline to TransAlta’s Solomon Energy Station in Western Australia (archived right here).
Screenshots of the unique video from February 2015 (left) and the false submit, taken on July 07, 2025
Not one of the photographs featured within the video assist the declare that they present the development of an Ethiopian fuel pipeline.
