{"id":100815,"date":"2024-03-07T22:36:21","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T19:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/?p=100815"},"modified":"2024-03-08T00:56:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T21:56:00","slug":"100815","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/2024\/03\/100815\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey signed an oil exploration agreement with Somalia last Thursday."},"content":{"rendered":"

Turkey and Somalia signed an energy exploration and drilling deal on Thursday, further strengthening bilateral ties after concluding a defence agreement Last Month.<\/p>\n

The deal targets\u00a0hydrocarbon reserves in its exclusive economic zone, which hasn\u2019t been developed since the collapse of the Somali government in the early 1990s. It also includes land exploration.<\/p>\n

The agreement was signed by Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar and Somali Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed in Istanbul.<\/p>\n

The move came after Ethiopia signed an agreement in January that grants it naval and commercial access to ports along Somaliland\u2019s coast, in exchange for recognition of the breakaways region\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n

In response, Ankara signed a comprehensive naval defence deal with Somalia last month, which Mogadishu says mandates Turkey to defend Somali sea waters against terrorism, piracy and any external threat that could violate Somali state rights for the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

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The \u201chistoric\u201d deal also reportedly empowers Turkey to develop Somalia\u2019s maritime resources in its exclusive economic zone.<\/p>\n

The Turkish Navy has already\u00a0operated off the shore of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden under a UN mission to combat piracy and armed robbery since 2009.<\/p>\n

Turkey has years of\u00a0experience in offshore energy exploration since it discovered gas in 2020 in the Black Sea. Ankara is now developing the gas and pumping it to its local network for domestic consumption.<\/p>\n

‘Turkey signed a similar land and offshore exploration deal with Libya in 2022 but the progress has been non-existent’<\/p>\n

– Energy expert<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

US government reports\u00a0indicate<\/a>\u00a0Somalia may have at least 30bn barrels of oil and gas reserves, but it requires investment that could take three to five years.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the Somali government signed an exploration deal with US-based Coastline Exploration for seven offshore blocks. Drilling is planned to start in\u00a02025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Somaliland, the northern autonomous breakaway region with no international recognition, also signed an oil exploration deal with the London-based Genel Energy in 2022. The drilling, in an area potentially containing\u00a05bn barrels of oil<\/a>, is set to start later this year.<\/p>\n

Mogadishu views the deal as illegitimate and considers it null and void.<\/p>\n

Challenges and costs<\/h3>\n

The Turkey-Somalia deal would require extensive efforts on the Turkish side to drill and develop resources, according to a Turkish energy expert.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurkey signed a similar land and offshore exploration deal with Libya in 2022 but the progress has been non-existent,\u201d said the expert, who did not wish to be named to freely express his opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurkey\u2019s exploration and drilling ships are largely slated for the Black Sea blocks, but Ankara could deploy Turkish petroleum drillship Abdulhamit to Somalia if it wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Turkey set to solidify its power in Somalia with murky naval defence deal<\/div>\n
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Turkey set to solidify its power in Somalia with murky naval defence deal.<\/div>\n
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The expert assessed that Turkey would have to spend up to half a billion dollars to conclude an exploration and successful drilling operation in Somali waters and further development of gas or oil would cost at least a few billion dollars.<\/p>\n

It is not clear whether Turkey would look for private or public partnerships to finance the projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe West is increasingly targeting green energy and working on hydrocarbons is becoming more and more inefficient as funding is scarce,\u201d the expert said. \u201cSomalia would appear as insecure to many companies, but Turkish naval presence and military assistance against terrorism may ensure some interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has invested a significant amount of money into Somalia since 2011, establishing the largest Turkish embassy in the world in Mogadishu and extending more than\u00a0$1bn in humanitarian aid<\/a>\u00a0to the country in response to a deadly drought.<\/p>\n

Turkey now has a large military base in Mogadishu, and Turkish firms operate the city’s airport and port. It is estimated that Turkey has\u00a0trained<\/a>\u00a0more than 16,000 Somali soldiers, an equivalent of one-third of the military, both on Turkish soil and in its Mogadishu base, known as Turksom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this\u00a0form<\/a><\/u>. More about MEE can be found\u00a0here<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n

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Turkey and Somalia signed an energy exploration and drilling deal on Thursday, further strengthening bilateral ties after concluding a defence agreement Last Month. The deal targets\u00a0hydrocarbon reserves in its exclusive economic zone, which hasn\u2019t been developed since the collapse of the Somali government in the early 1990s. It also includes land exploration. The agreement was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":100824,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dhacdoyinka-caalamka","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100815"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100859,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100815\/revisions\/100859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}