Somalia | Oil, Gas & other Exploration News

[Janub]

I thought this was a worthy topic. The country's civil war has totally cast it off from the rest of the world, and information about the country has been through the lens of experience from those who fled and the memories and photos they've brought back with them. However, the country stood as a nation for only a generation, not nearly enough time for any sort of resource exploitation to occur, but lots of information from the brief period of exploration between the 60s and 80s still exists, and I wanted to bring it to light.

First category - Oil

Source - Jane's Intelligence Gathering Services

While Somalia has never been an oil producer, geologically there is a strong possibility that it could possess significant oil reserves.

The sedimentary basin running under the Gulf of Aden provides the most obvious area of exploration as significant reserves have already been discovered off Yemen. These waters are ostensibly controlled by Somaliland and Puntland. The US companies Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips were awarded large concessions in Somali territory before the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991. While the unrecognised government of Somaliland has pledged to honour these concessions and southern warlords have offered security to oil workers there, US oil companies still consider the country too dangerous and unregulated to resume activity.Some other foreign oil companies have, however, made attempts to resume exploration activities since 2000. In February 2001, Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG) signed a deal with TotalFinaElf (now Total) awarding the company a one-year exploration agreement in southern Somalia. However, the inclusion of the TNG into the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) made the company pull out, illustrating the major problem of foreign oil and gas contractors in Somalia - namely the stability of local partners. A second major problem is contested local and national borders, illustrated by Range Resource's quest to drill for oil in areas claimed by both Puntland and Somaliland.Today, there are several oil companies involved in Somalia. Australian Range Resources entered into a Heads of Agreement in October 2005 to acquire a 50.1 per cent interest in the sole and exclusive rights to all mineral and hydrocarbon exploration and development in Puntland. In July 2006, the company reached an agreement to acquire.

[Xusein]

Great idea of a thread.

Somalia has a lot of potential, it's a total virgin land as far as resource exploration is concerned...I'll contribute to this thread when I can.

[Lailax]

The US companies Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips were awarded large concessions in Somali territory before the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991.

Wtf is this.
We don't have to honour something done by a dictator and done without the public's consent. Any money that comes from the natural resources should belong only to the people of Somalia and no non Somali should be allowed to buy land where there might be resources.

[Constantine MMX]

Lailax, those contracts have already expired. Somalia could easily become a high income country by 2025 through a combination of stability and a well managed resource industry. I personally admire countries whose economy is build on enterprise, like Turkey and Malaysia, imagine if these countries today found 10 billion barrels, that would simply be the icing on the cake.

[Janub]

^ Malaysia has 3 billion barrels, how do you think the Petronas energy giant got its start - right at home. And Turkey has immense resources, water being one of them, which it supplies to places as far as Jordan and Israel for a price.

[Ayatulahi]

[Ayatulahi]

[juzme123]

Lets hope they find the stuff.

[Ayatulahi]

^

I hope so

[BUTEMBO21]

Very interesting new. , Is it in Somaliland?

Is it the Turkish investors?

[Deebo.]

drill baby drill

[Ayatulahi]

^

No it's Puntland

[Azmat]

Great news, how much oil does Somalia have?

[HMS Swaziland]

1) Big congratulations. Hopefully this will provide an added incentive for fighters to put down the arms. Somali's appear to have known for a long time (from what we hear from other Somali forumers) that there was oil under the ground, hopefully now that they will begin to bear its fruits, they will exploit it fully rather then taking pot shots all day.
2) Does anyone know how much oil is under Somalia as far as explorers have found so far
3) How much will this initial project produce?
4) When will the next project come about?

[BUTEMBO21]

Originally Posted by Ayatulahi

^

No it's Puntland

Ah, thanks. isn't it insecurity there?

[juzme123]

Originally Posted by BUTEMBO21

Ah, thanks. isn't it insecurity there?

It is relatively stable.

[Ayatulahi]

Originally Posted by Azmat

Great news, how much oil does Somalia have?

More than 500 billion barrels

[Azmat]

Originally Posted by Ayatulahi

More than 500 billion barrels

... So Somalia has 5 times more oil than Saudi Arabia? o.o

[juzme123]

There is already confirmed deposits of Natural Gas, Tin, Uraniun, Iron Ore, Gypsum, Bauxite etc.

The geograpic location of Somalia means how much not if there is oil. A 3,300km coast means almost unlimited potential for off-shore explorations.

[Constantine MMX]

Azmat, he's pulling your leg. Though Somalia could surprise the world.