Somaliland: exploration in ‘Africa’s 55th state’

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Somaliland: exploration in ‘Africa’s 55th state’

 

Hussein Abdi Dualeh, the new oil minister of Somaliland, estimates that reserves in the former British protectorate could be in the billions of barrels. Fatima Al Marzooqi / The National

Until 2010, Hussein Abdi Dualeh worked as a simple project manager in Los Angeles overseeing the use of natural gas as fuel for cars. It was a natural progression given his downstream engineering experience and his career start in the UAE as a salesman out of high school, marketing lubricants for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

Those days are past. On a trip back to Abu Dhabi this month, Mr Dualeh was feted at a table of honour, knee to knee with Mohammed Al Hamli, the UAE Minister of Energy, and Tony Hayward, the former BP chief executive, in the heart of the luxurious Yas Viceroy hotel. Later, after delivering one of the keynote speeches of the morning to executives from the world’s supermajors, he enjoyed a cruise around the island before retiring to his suite.

Such is the life of the new oil minister of Somaliland.

His rapid rise to power is a product of politics and the reemergence of companies questing for oil and gas in a place that has yet to secure its statehood. Like Greenland and Iraqi Kurdistan, where wildcatters are drilling deep for oil, Somaliland administers itself by and large on its own, yet has not been recognised as a country by the United Nations. Like them, it also hopes hydrocarbons can ease its path to statehood.

“You know what really carries the day is not politics, it’s geology,” said Mr Dualeh. “If the geology is good, all bets are off.”

Somaliland has ample history to overcome. In the late 1980s, Chevron was drilling and Conoco laying airstrips thanks to oil concessions granted by the central Somalian government, which included the former Italian colony that today is known as Somalia and, to the north, the former British protectorate that calls itself Somaliland.

In 1991, militias overtook the capital of Mogadishu and deposed the government, sending Somalia into lawlessness and famine and leading foreign companies to declare force majeure. That year Somaliland declared independence.

“We actually think of ourselves as the 55th state in Africa,” said Mr Dualeh, pointing out that companies operating there are publicly traded in London and enjoy ample legal counsel. “If you have a company that has a lot of interests in Somaliland, for the safety of their interests they would rather see a full state that they’re dealing with – so it will only hasten the day that we’re being recognised.”

This time around, three independents have signed up to explore Somaliland, the best known of which is led by Mr Hayward – Genel Energy, the Turkish operator in Kurdistan. Genel is to start surveying next month and expects to drill its maiden well at the start of next year, part of a regional exploration programme that includes Morocco and the Ivory Coast.

“The challenge is given the very high quality assets in Kurdistan, how do you replicate it as you go outside?” said Mr Hayward. “Really the only way to do that is through exploration, so what we were looking for is frontier exploration opportunities where we thought there was a possibility of finding large fields.”

No one knows how much oil could be underground, in part because the exploration campaigns under the previous government were so brief. Mr Dualeh estimates that reserves could be in the billions of barrels, although he stops short of imagining a future with million-barrel-a-day output and ascendancy to Opec.

Beyond exploration, he hopes to transform the port of Berbera – a three-berth harbour that today exports sheep and frankincense – into an international fuel shipping hub, taking advantage of its deepwater geology and proximity to the Asian maritime transit route. A road and railway are also planned between Somaliland and Ethiopia, with a pipeline for Ethiopian hydrocarbons under discussion. Hopes are high for international companies such as DP World that could invest millions of dollars to transform Berbera into a world-class commercial port.

The drive to industrialise Somaliland came about three years ago with the arrival of a new president, who Mr Dualeh had served as US campaign manager. (A substantial diaspora in America furnishes votes and campaign funds.) The president then tapped him to lead the energy ministry, where he remains the only petroleum engineer.

Mr Dualeh recalled working in the United States 20 years ago and, from afar, following Chevron and Conoco’s short-lived exploration campaign.

“They were drilling and I would read this in the papers and say, ‘Oh God, I wish I could be a part of this operation,’” he said. “And guess what? I now have the whole thing in my hands.”

The National

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Bring out the oil bring out the resources SL should pursue a Foreign policy that is more based on economic resourcefulness which will lead to great economic growth for Somaliland and the Somaliland people.

[STOIC]

No Spin-zone..Its only fair to call this another Garowe-Style oil exploration antics...Don't celebrate too soon lest you find water in those Somali gravels...

[Somalia]

Garowe is almost a decade ahead of you in this area and it has proven petroleum presence, so the comparison must not be made here, ladies and gentlemen, you must compare yourself to a non-exploratory region like maybe Antarctic ama maybe Djibouti you know whatever..

[STOIC]

^Calm down little kid...You don't need to hyperventilate on the fact..Unless you want to tell me water wasn't what gushed out....

[Che -Guevara]

^Nigga stop hating Hargeysa and Garowe.

 

XX......One thing Somaliland should have been from get-go was to build a human capacity and strong economy. They should stop tying economic growth to international recognition and find a way to spur growth. They might actually pursue reer Sool to support secession had the economy flourished.

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Yeah but its easier said than done SL should encourage the industrialization process of the country, and investing in human resources is an excellent phenomena. But because the lack of disparity in SL economic management this hasn't been achieved yet. It should establish an economic management institute and It should try to make new laws. Former Finance Minister tried that so that its citizens try to be creative and he advocated replacing foreign imports with domestic production of goods. The private financial sectors are already growing rapidly i agree people should not be fixated on the resources of a country its good if its there. But the economic growth can be implemented using other methods but its a slow process it requires the right leadership and political reform, and ofcourse incentive creativity is needed to. It should first focus on the first step to create small manufacturing companies which will try to fill the gap of what all Somaliland consumes and the next phase should be one that targets the larger Foreign markets in the region so Somaliland has a long way to go but it will get there Inshallah.

[Taleexi]

- nice endeavor never the less. Be mind to exclude Makhir & Khatumo lands on your explorations.

[Somalia]

STOIC;913096 wrote:

^Calm down little kid...You don't need to hyperventilate on the fact..Unless you want to tell me water wasn't what gushed out....

Hyperventilating? It was gushed out, in one well not both. Compare these two articles and come back to me.

 

Al Arabiya - 20th January

 

Next to us, we Saudis, and within our strategic security sphere, lies a country biting the dust for more than two decades.

 

Its collapse began when its last “effective” government, which was neither successful nor popularly elected, fell.

 

Even if that government had survived to this day, it surely would have been swept away by the Arab Spring.

 

Together with our neighbors in the region, we looked after it on one or two occasions, and then moved away.

 

Even the Americans ran out on it after a solitary attempt to save it in the wake of the war to liberate Kuwait. At the time, George Bush Sr. may have wanted to show his country was also ready to intervene and help a poverty-stricken Muslim country, unlike oil-rich Kuwait. It turned out to be a bitter American experience.

 

I am referring to Somalia.

 

Country in need

Who wants to help Somalia? Its people are unruly, plagued by differences and internecine strife, and ruled by warlords. Al-Qaeda infested many of its citizens’ minds, adding to miseries and divisions even in single households.

 

In the end, Somalia became the hotbed of high sea piracy. The world came to shun both the state and its people. Somalis got to be a source of concern for Saudi Arabia and its Gulf partners after a rise in their illegal immigration across Yemen through a transnational network of organized crime in the smuggling of migrants.

 

Everyone lost hope in Somalia and no one believed the failed state would recover anytime soon.

 

Or so it seemed.

 

There is now a glimmer of hope looming on the horizon.

 

International organizations now say Somalia is on the mend. Its markets are beginning to recover, together with trade and construction activities. People who visited Somalia of late say there is money moving around in the impoverished country.

 

So, what happened?

 

The answer is Turkey and its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is now the most popular leader there, with Somali mothers and fathers eager to name their newborns “Recep,” “Tayyip” and “Erdogan.”

 

So what is Turkey doing in Somalia and why? Is it on “a pilgrimage or selling beads” there -- which is a common expression used by Mecca residents well-grounded in combining godliness and moneymaking?

 

One school of thought worth monitoring is known as “Turkey’s moderate Islam,” which combines advocacy with spreading the teachings of religion, economic development and trade.

 

It is capitalized on by dynamic Turkish businesses in carving out new markets.

 

There is a Turkish scholar, author and educator named Fethullah Gülen, who founded the Gülen movement that is believed to have 1,000 schools around the world and more than 10 million followers in Turkey alone. He currently lives in self-exile in Pennsylvania.

 

I was in Turkey some 25 years ago, trying to cover the rise of political Islam, when I first heard his name. But I didn’t get to meet him as he always shunned publicity and the media.

 

He had left Turkey for the United States when he was committed for trial in 2000 after the leaking of a video urging his followers to “move within the arteries of the system, without anyone noticing your existence, until you reach all the power centers. You must wait until such time as you have got all the state power.”

 

Originally charged with trying to undermine the secularity of the Turkish state, Gülen was acquitted in 2008 but continues to live in seclusion in Pennsylvania.

 

The Gülen movement is operating in Somalia through aid relief and development agencies, offering young Somali men and women scholarships for religious studies in Turkey. They would eventually replace Somali graduates of hard-line religious schools funded by Gulf charities.

 

By the time he flew to Somalia in August 2011, Erdogan had arranged for more than 1,200 Somali students to arrive in Turkey on full scholarships to study sciences, engineering, medicine and law at a cost of $70 million.

 

He then raised from Turkey’s private sector more than $365 in donations to Somalia, over and above his government’s $49 million contribution.

 

Today, Turkish traders and aid workers move freely across Somalia without needing to worry about being killed or kidnapped.

 

In contrast, U.N. and international aid workers remain holed up in their Somali offices or hotel rooms.

 

Is this happening because Turks, being Muslims, are familiar with the Somali people’s character and norms?

 

‘Turkey Shocks Africa’

Julia Harte raises the question in her recent article, “Turkey Shocks Africa,” on which I relied to pen this think piece and which I strongly urge you to read.

 

Or does Turkey have a comprehensive plan – denied by the government – to marry advocacy and trade, thus help Turkish entrepreneurs and businesses gain favor among Somalis?

 

Or is energy-starved Turkey eyeing opportunities offered by the prospective find of 10 billion barrels of crude oil in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland province?

Alternatively, is Turkey mounting a smart charm offensive to increase its overall exports to Africa, which rose to $10.3 billion last year from $2.1 billion in 2003?

 

Turkey is now challenging China on African markets, but with a more humane face than the alienating method favored by the Chinese.

 

Regardless of Turkey’s motives, what happened benefited both the Turks and the Somalis.

 

And what about us?

 

It’s wrong to portray the Turks as competitors. They are friends who did what we should have done. It’s therefore good to catch up with them and participate in this benefaction. After all, we spearheaded the concept, “The Hajj…and the sale of beads.”

 

Jamal Khashoggi is a Saudi journalist, columnist, author, and general manager of the upcoming Al Arab News Channel. He previously served as a media aide to Prince Turki al Faisal while he was Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States. Khashoggi has written for various daily and weekly Arab newspapers, including Asharq al-Awsat, al-Majalla and al-Hayat, and was editor-in-chief of the Saudi-based al-Watan. He was a foreign correspondent in Afghanistan, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan, and other Middle Eastern countries. He is also a political commentator for Saudi-based and international news channels.

[Somalia]

Vs Hadhwanaag version

 

 

http://www.hadhwanaag.com/detail.aspx?id=88644

[Somalia]

As always, Somaliland trying to get into the limelight by creating fiction, I am afraid this is Somalia's time, you are either on board or not.

[Haatu]

Somalia, have they at least utilised all that water yet?

[Somalia]

Are you joking, it's not enough water to be utilized. The first well showed oil sands in the first strike.

 

#KeepingHopeAlive2013 :cool:

[nuune]

 

If he was alive, he would have claimed 98% of that alleged oil.

 

 

That is young Melez Zenawi, an iconic picture, just walking into the presidential palace for the first time in 1991 with his rebels behind and front, his fiercing eyes filled with complete hungary for power.

 

The eyes of absolute authority.

 

The only way to manage a country is through a dictatorship, thanks to Siyad and Mabuto Seko Seko iyo Gadafi, they did great job in uniting a country through fist iron hands, and once they left, what happened.

[STOIC]

Somalia, did you had to go through all that trouble to "proof" that there is oil in Puntland? Warya you got the wrong guy to have a competition with about some garrison cities...Wonder how you guys will react if God-blesses you guys with wealth beyond avarice instead of water?