International companies to begin oil exploration in Somaliland

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Hargeisa-Genel Energy and other international firms are moving ahead with plans to explore for oil in Somaliland, a development that officials hope will lead to prosperity and job creation in the region.

In early December, Genel Energy will start taking aerial pictures of Somaliland’s Togdheer region to look for oil deposits, according to Somaliland’s Minister of Mining, Energy and Water Resources Hussein Abdi Duale.

 

“The aerial search will be followed by oil exploration work, which will start in the beginning of 2013,” Duale said October 3rd as he welcomed a delegation from Genel Energy, which is headquartered in Turkey.

 

The company will use seismic vibrators to explore for oil and will then drill wells, he said. “This will be the first time oil is drilled in the country in 20 years.”

 

Duale said Genel Energy reached a working arrangement with Britain-based oil company Asante Oil, which had an initial agreement with the ministry to search for oil.

 

“Genel Energy’s role in this work will be 70%, and we are happy they will start this work in Somaliland. We hope that oil will be discovered in our country so we can prosper,” he said.

 

The delegation visited Burao, capital of the Togdheer region, on October 4th to assess the security situation for Genel Energy’s future office there.

 

Australia-based oil company Jacka Resources, Ltd. will also work with Petrosoma, Ltd., based in the United Kingdom, to begin aerial exploration at the end of October and will photograph 10,000 square miles, said Petrosoma’s information officer in Hargeisa Mohamed Elmi Abdalle.

 

Abdalle said they will transition to ground exploration in January, with the initial phase of the project costing $10 million.

 

Said Mohamed Elmi, chairman of the parliamentary sub-committee on environment and natural resources, said that a bill on Somaliland oil exploration will be presented to parliament in December.

 

The Ministry of Mining, Energy and Water Resources has reached agreements in the past few years with four other foreign companies that work in the mineral and oil sectors, Elmi said.

 

Opportunities for job creation

Abdirahman Aden Aar, an economics professor at Hargeisa’s Civil Service Institute, said he hopes oil production will help reduce Somaliland’s unemployment rate.

 

“It will enhance the country’s economy and will create jobs for unemployed youth,” he said. “This will in turn enhance the living conditions of society.”

 

“Not many people are educated in oil matters in the country now, so production will result in bringing in foreign experts from whom the few local skilled workers will be able to learn from,” Aar said.

 

About 1,700 young people recently graduated from national and private universities and are now looking for work, Aar said. “There is an imbalance each year in the number of work opportunities and those seeking work,” he said. “So [oil exploration] can be an opportunity for job creation.”

[Carafaat]

oil fever is spreading. these little ranger companies hunguri ayee dadka galiyeen. ufffff.

[Taleexi]

I hope inaan biyo laga helin. The mental instability afterwards is what worries me most

[Carafaat]

Taleexi, water is the source of life and I hope we find plenty of it. But it could indeed dissapoint few who dream of becoming oil barons.

 

P.S. Burnt Notice, sxb give us your vieuws on this oil venture in Somaliland.

[Taleexi]

Source of life indeed. I don't know what planet you live on but water itself is scary in our lands.

[Burn Notice]

Carafaat;879400 wrote:

Taleexi, water is the source of life and I hope we find plenty of it. But it could indeed dissapoint few who dream of becoming oil barons.

 

P.S. Burnt Notice, sxb give us your vieuws on this oil venture in Somaliland.

Carafart my good friend lol..the more the merrier I say..if it wasn't for the PL government and Africa oil/Range who showed the world that Somalia is no longer too risky to drill, no one would even think it possible to invest there...lots more to the Dharoor basin that the JV partners are letting on, watch this space

 

Good to see Somalia moving forward on the political front..exciting times...history in the making hopefully x x

[Jacaylbaro]

Taleexi;879396 wrote:

I hope inaan biyo laga helin. The mental instability afterwards is what worries me most

Haa ,, Qolo waalatay baad aragtay sow maaha ??

[Haatu]

^ :D And to think Xiin was ready to give away brides to the highest bidder