The Director General of the Somali Petroleum Agency, Abdulqadir Aden, said that drilling work on the Curad-1 oil well, which is being carried out by Türkiye off the coast of Somalia, is progressing at a rapid pace and could be completed by the end of September.
The director said that drilling has reached about 3,000 meters, with the work progressing faster than previously scheduled, and no technical problems have been reported.
The work was originally scheduled to be completed in October, but the director general said that the current pace could make it possible to complete it a month ahead of schedule.
“The work is likely to be completed by the end of September. October was originally scheduled as the completion date,” he said.
Abdulqadir Aden also said that no accidents or technical malfunctions have been reported so far, noting that the work is being carried out in accordance with safety standards and technical requirements.
An estimated 470 to 480 people are working on the drilling and support vessels, with Turkish nationals making up about 20 percent of the crew.
Turkey’s seventh-generation drilling vessel, the Çağrı Bey, is drilling the Curad-1 well, located about 370km offshore from Mogadishu.
The plan is to drill to a depth of about 4,000 meters below the seabed, with the total depth of the well expected to reach about 7,500 meters.
Curad-1 is Turkey’s first offshore oil drilling operation outside its territorial waters.