Is There Oil In Somalia????

[Somali Brother]

Somalia's potential source of income is tied to the prospects of peace and unification. We have so much unexploited natural resources but lack the will and ambition to prosper from it. Please read the following article I got from Hiiraan Online.

 

 

 

 

 

IS THERE OIL IN SOMALIA?

Eng. Abdulkadir Abiikar Hussein, MSc.; FGS (Engineering Geologist)

 

 

Many oil experts believe that Somalia has got a high potential, and that the country needs peace, democracy and political stability in order to attract international investment necessary for exploration and development.

 

In a discussion of the oil prospects of Somalia, several fundamental questions assume major importance. Has oil been generated in the subsoil of Somalia? Are there suitable reservoir rocks (porous) that can hold and act as container of oil and gas after it was formed millions of years ago? Are there suitable structures inside the ground that can retain the oil: anticlines, stratigraphic traps and facies pinchouts? The answer to all these questions, with some reservations to the last one, is 'yes'. But then comes another question: why Somalia is not roducing oil if that is the case? The answer lies partially in the methods sed for oil prospecting in the sixties and early seventies and partially on the political history of Somalia.

 

The earliest indicators of the generation of oil in Somalia are shown by a large oil seep southeast of Berbera and other seeps in various locations of Somalia. Stan-Vac drilled three dry holes in the area of the seep in Bihindulle, Laalays and Just south of Berbera in 1959 before Somalia became independent. Azzaroli, a geologist with the National Research Council of Italy and later with Agip mineralia in Somalia, mapped bituminous strata in limestone of north Somalia.

 

With the coming of the drilling rigs to Somalia, many more indicators of oil and gas became evident. Oil companies invested enormously in the fifties and early sixties and carried out oil prospecting. Sinclair and Agip were the lead in these activities. In the Agip 1 Sagaleh well (, oil staining was found in a porous limestone-dolomitic series of the Jurassic. The Sinclair 1 Gira found a small oil show in the Jurassic. In the Agip 1 Cotton, near Bandar Beila, a good gas show was found in the Cretaceous limestone, and the 1Sagaleh, in the same zone, found oil staining. At 792m. depth in the 1Marka, the well showed not only hydrocarbon stains, but contained gas under good pressure. The Sinclair 1 at Afgoye, west of Mogadishu, also had good gas shows. Farther south in Somalia, the Sinclair 1 at Addo Alimo, southeast of Afmadow, and the Hobyo 1 north of Hobyo town, all contained stains and had very thick sedimentary layers.

 

Firstly, the anticlinal structural approach costed time and delay for the actual production of oil from Somalia. It took many years before oil companies had to abandon this methodology of oil prospecting. The existence of old anticlinal structures to hold petroleum seems to be lacking in Somalia. There is no evidence of large sclae compressive folding in Somalia, like that in the Arabian peninsula and Egypt. There are anticlines in the north but they are young in terms of geologic time. The anticlines of the north are believed to have been caused by either rejuvenation of old fault blocks or drag along major faults that parallel along the Somali coast of the north. In either case, the movements were probably associated with the Miocene separation of Africa and Arabia, and therefore with post-Mesozoic and post early Tertiary oil and gas accumulations. Consequently, commercial accumulations of hydrocarbons must be sought in older structures and stratigraphic traps, because those of the late Tertiary age appear to be barren of petroleum.

 

There are similar anticlines in southern Somalia, although it is apparent that these structures were developed by large igneous intrusions, like the one in the Dooy area (Buur Hakaba, Buur Haybe and Buur Qalin and Aliyow Geelle of Diinsoor). Some fault-block anticlines are identified in Central Somalia, and similar structures have been oil productive in Arabia, while on the other hand, some were not.

 

In Somalia, all or nearly all, anticlinal features that have been drilled up to 1977 resulted in dry holes. It was these failures that compelled geologists to seek other methodologies of prospecting oil in Somalia. Then came the idea of using the stratigraphic approach to oil finding in Somalia. Some geologists believe that this method will lead to success.

 

 

The lithology and structure of the Somali embayment ( Lower Mudug, Galgaduud and the fringe lands of Hiiraan adjacent to Galgaduud ) are similar to those of the Midland basin of West Texas. The Somali embayment is Mesozoic basin, while West Texas basin is Paleozoic basin, but they have many similarities. The offshore marine environment, adjacent to Hobyo coast includes probably among the numerous promising zones that contains petroleum.

 

Nearly, all the oil shows in Somalia have been in carbonate rocks, although in the coastal areas of the Banaadir, there have been petroleum shows, especially gas, trapped in Tertiary sandstones. These reservoirs have good potentials and may yield oil/gas if prospected properly. The known shows for the Tertiary sandstones are located in Marka and Afgoye. This area offers good possibilities for commercial oil and gas production because there is a thick Tertiary section of 4267 m. In the Banaadir area, gas shows have been reported, and the sedimentary column thickens seaward. Offshore exploration would appear to offer the good possibilities.

 

Secondly, the political history of Somalia played a negative role. In 1969, the military came to power and Somalia shifted to the Russian Block. Command economy and socialism was at the centre of the political economy. In the next two decades, the regime was authoritarian and repressive and oil companies could not take the risk in investing into Somalia, and instead had to wait and move very cautious with regard to Somalia. Somalia was at odds with Ethiopia, and went into war twice in two decades. However, Somalia's policies changed at a later stage and cooperated with the World Bank and the IMF, but this action was too late to contribute positively and the factional movements were already becoming stronger and threatening the existence of the state.

 

Summarising the existing technical literature, corporate and scientific documents: there are four major areas that may bear oil and natural gas that could yield significant commercial amounts.

 

These zones are:

. the Guban area of the north, particulary the new Sahel and Awdal regions.

. the Banaadir region between Mogadishu-Afgooye and Baraawa, including Marka.

. the Somali embayment of Lower Mudug and Galgaduud regions, including offshore Hobyo.

. the Nugaal Valley between Qardho and Bandar Beila.

 

Many oil experts believe that Somalia has got a high potential, and that the country needs peace, democracy and political stability in order to attract international investment necessary for exploration and development. Once the country embarks on the mentioned course, interested oil companies will return immediately and resume exploration.

 

In a 1991 World-Bank coordinated study, intended to encourage private investment in the petroleum potentials of eight African nations, geologists put Somalia and Sudan at the top of the list of prospective commercial oil producers. Today Sudan produces with the help of investments from Petronas of Malaysia and a Chinese (Taiwanese) oil company. This is because Sudan is relatively calmer than Somalia.

 

Since 1986 Conoco, along with Amoco, Chevron, Phillips and briefly Shell, all sought and obtained exploration licences for Somalia. Soon Somalia was carved up into concessional blocks with Conoco, Amoco and Chevron winning the right to explore and exploit the most promising areas. According to documents obtained by the Times, two-thirds of Somalia was allocated to the American oil giants before President Barre was overthrown and the country plunged into a civil war. Even some political analysts attribute the American involvement in Somalia was due to oil because the then President of the US was bowing to the US oil corporate stakes in exploiting Somalia. However, the Administration of President Bush and the State Department insisted that the decision to send US troops to Somalia was only to safeguard aid shipments and restore peace, and was therefore, strictly humanitarian.

 

In another development, two geologists in a London three-day conference, while presenting their results, reported that an analysis of nine exploratory wells drilled in Somalia indicated that Somalia is situated within the oil window and the country is highly prospective for gas and oil. A report by a third geologist, Z.R. Beydoun, said offshore sites possessed the geological parameters conductive to generation, expulsion and trapping of significant amounts of oil and gas.

 

There was always a deep interest of oil companies in Somalia. However, these interests intensified when Texas-based Hunt Oil Exploration grounded in the finding of a highly successful exploration effort estimated at one billion barrels of reserves in Yemen. Geologists disclosed that the Yemeni reserve is a portion of a continuous deposit, crossing into Somalia. The deposit of north Somalia (Somaliland) and Yemen were one and the same deposit before 35 million years ago when Yemen and Somalia were joined together. Immediately Hunt Oil Exploration crossed Gulf of Aden to Bulhaar, in the coastal Guban area of Somaliland to start drilling. Hunt explorers expected the same geology as in Yemen. However, the 1998 SNM attack on the north scared off the American petroleum prospectors and compelled drilling to cease.

 

In conclusion, Somalia possesses all the requirements for a petroliferous province. Hydrocarbons (oil and gas) have been generated in the Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks and has a sedimentary column thickening to 8830m. Many porous reservoirs are known, both in carbonate and clastic rocks, and various types of traps are probably present. It is now time that Somalia should concentrate on the political environment, improve stability and make the country a place where law and order prevail. Thomas O'Connor, the chief petroleum engineer for the World Bank, who headed an in-depth three-year study of oil prospects in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia's northern coast, said, "It's there. There is no doubt there is oil there. You don't know until you study a lot further just how much is there and it has commercial potential. It's got high potential ……once the Somalis get their act together." Thomas O'Connor, a professional geologist, based his conclusion on the findings of some of the world's top petroleum geologists.

 

With regard to oil prospecting companies, we should not look only to the west for investment but the east has also technological capacity to explore and produce oil. China Taiwan and Malaysia are very keen in terms of investing in oil prospecting in Somalia. We have to lay in place the conditions for international investment.

[Gabbal]

This brings back memories. :cool: