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Oil and Gas Exploration in Somalia: Hope and Challenge


by Hassan Ali Hussein
Sunday, October 13, 2013

On October 07, 2013,   Somalia
Oil & Gas Summit 2013 sponsored by Soma Oil & gas and Schlumberger was held in London. The Ministers of National Resources and Finance of Federal Government of Somalia gave the opening speech. Assorted articles about Somalia’s oil and gas potential were presented and discussed. More than half of the speakers were Somali professionals who have been in the geology field for more than 3 decades.

This highly organized and important summit provided the highest levels of networking among the 100’s of delegates from international oil companies, industry leaders, experts and investors. This is a new era of opportunities in the Somali oil and gas industry, due to its geographic location, Somalia should look for markets and investors from the East. Countries such as Malaysia, Japan, India and China will be eager to gain access to Somalia’s oil and gas if its reserves are deemed to be viable.

History of Hydrocarbon Exploration in Somalia

The first well was drilled in Somalia in 1945 by Sinclair.  During 1950s and -1960s, no substantial exploration activities were conducted as International Oil companies were busy producing the already explored oil and gas regions of the Middle East.

During 1980s there was an “oil and gas exploration rush” to Somalia, driven by the country’s huge oil and gas potential.  All eight major oil companies had concessions in Somalia and most of the onshore and offshore seismic were conducted.  Late 1980, oil companies ceased their exploration and declared force majeure  due to civil war.

 From 1991 to 2010, there has been a standstill to all exploration activities due to continued civil unrest.

In 2011, Genel energy signed two production sharing agreements with Somaliland authority. In 2012, Africa Oil and its partner Range Resources started initial drilling in the Shabeel-1 well after they signed an exploration program with Puntland authority.5

 In 2013, a new era has started for Somali Oil and gas sector as the Federal Government initiated new policy and regulations framework  in the management of natural resources of Somalia.

In  a nutshell, since 1950s only less than 70 wells were drilled onshore and  6 wells offshore. So far most of the drilled wells have no prospect of extracting-commercial oil. This indicates that Somalia is still under-explored country compared to the other East of African countries. Somalia needs an extensive geological and geophysical exploration. Federal Government of Somali had contacted the major international oil & gas companies who currently hold concessions in Somalia since the 1980s to re-start their operations in Somalia since the security situation continued to improve.

The Offshore seismic option agreement with SOMA Oil  and Gas Company

Recently huge gas fields discovered offshores of Mozambique and Tanzania have sparked a flurry of exploration activity across Africa. These east African countries awarded exploration licenses to some large oil companies such as Shell, Anadarko and Eni.

Despite two decades in which the potential for the development of the petroleum exploration in Somalia has been impossible due to the civil war.  Some oil companies are aggressive risk-takers who want to start and get hold of their share before the large oil or gas field come to play since Somalia has longest coast on Africa with more than 3000 km long and has the majority of the Indian Ocean margin lies within Somalia. 

A new U K -based oil company called “Soma Oil & Gas company” has signed  a contract with the Somali Federal governments.  Under the terms of the agreement, Soma Oil & Gas will perform seismic surveying offshore (from Kismayo to Hobyo) and in certain limited onshore areas. The Company will prepare an evaluation of Somalia’s petroleum potential by gathering and reprocessing previous seismic data using modern techniques. New modern data analysis procedures and interpretation techniques should be applied and final seismic data will be retained in data room.

Somali Petroleum Law

The Somali Petroleum Law was enacted in 2008 by the previous Transitional Federal Government. Some regulations are not stringent enough and are open to different  interpretations by Federal government, regional authority as well as oil companies. For example, one article states that any Oil and gas agreement should be signed by both Federal and regional governments. What does this mean? What about if one of the entities reject the agreement? Is the agreement still valid? What about if each regional authority invite oil companies and enter into  an agreement?

When the law does not separate clearly the federal authority and local government, a legal battle might erupt under the rally cries of “federalism”, “regionalism” or “constitutional rights”.

In nutshell, The Somali petroleum laws needs to be revised and harmonized in the hydrocarbon sector, including legal, technical and commercial aspects. 

Conclusion

Somalia has become a hotbed of exploration after oil discoveries in Kenya, Uganda and giant gas fields in Tanzania and Mozambique. However, Somalia has yet to conduct extensive geological and geophysical surveys as these surveys will aid significantly in the structural mapping of undersea and prospective hydrocarbon basins.

If a hydrocarbon is discovered offshore Somalia, will a “resource curse” occur? Or will it improve the security situation and bring enhanced and accelerated development? Or will it bring conflict and further military activity, as seen in the raging conflict between Sudan and South Sudan?  Or will oil bring greater collaboration between federal and local governments?

Hassan  Ali Hussein, PhD
Senior Trainer-ITD
Saudi  Aramco- Dhahran, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
E-mail: [email protected]



 





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