September 1894.
Western Great Lakes Province, East Africa.
"What are such long steel pipes for? They look about as thick as an armful, don't they?" This was the question on many people's minds.
"I heard they're natural gas pipelines, carrying the same kind of gas used in gas lamps."
What everyone was discussing was East Africa's first industrial-scale long-distance natural gas pipeline, a project currently receiving the focused attention of the East African government—or rather, Ernst.
Among the three giants of conventional energy minerals—coal, oil, and natural gas—East Africa had no shortage of coal. Oil, however, was a relatively scarce resource in East Africa, so Ernst naturally turned his attention primarily toward natural gas.
On one hand, East Africa possessed extremely abundant natural gas reserves. In his previous life, areas within what were now East African countries, such as Tanzania and Mozambique, had contained vast natural gas resources.
On the other hand, natural gas application technology had already matured. East Africa therefore urgently needed to popularize its use, allowing it to replace some industrial and household fuels.
Humanity had used natural gas for quite a long time, but the large-scale modern application of natural gas had begun in Britain.
In 1732, Britain's Calisher Spading proposed using methane discharged from coal mines to provide street lighting for Whitehaven.
By 1813, the London and Westminster Gas Light and Coke Company had secured the first municipal gas lighting contract in history.
The United States came next. Its natural gas lighting industry began in 1816, when Baltimore, Maryland began using natural gas for streetlamp illumination. By 1886, the United States had already built the world's first industrial-scale long-distance gas transmission pipeline.
Thus, East Africa had begun developing and utilizing natural gas relatively late. Even with vigorous investment, catching up technologically still took additional time.