Somalia debates law to open oil exploration up to foreign firms

[General Duke]

Somalia debates law to open oil exploration up to foreign firms

 

 

NAIROBI (AFP) - The Somali parliament is debating a new oil law that would pave the way for the government to offer exploration licences to foreign firms.

 

Somalia's ambassador to Kenya Mohamed Ali Nur said the law would also see the formation of a national oil firm in the country, which is believed to have hydrocarbon reserves.

 

"The law is going to be debated today or tomorrow ... I believe that after the debate it will be passed," Nur told reporters in Nairobi.

 

He denied a report last month in The Financial Times newspaper that Somalia had struck oil exploration contracts with Chinese oil firms.

 

"The government hasn't signed any agreement with any company. We are waiting until the law is passed in the parliament," Nur said.

 

The Horn of Africa nation has attracted several foreign oil companies, which are seeking permission to resume the search for oil.

 

Somalia sank into chaos in 1991 when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted. Before then, geological exploration had suggested that Somalia might have significant oil and natural gas, given its proximity to the oil-rich Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

 

 

 

 

In the final years of Barre's rule, the northern Puntland region was carved into concessional blocs to American oil giants: Amoco, Chevron, Conoco and Phillips -- the two later merged into Conoco-Phillips.

 

But serious exploration was prevented when civil war engulfed the whole nation.

 

Soucer: AFP

[rudy-Diiriye]

u mean ethiopian puppets!! see i am reading you brain!!

[General Duke]

^^^keep calling names, the TFG is going about rebuilding Somalia step at at a time.