Türkiye Will Support Somalia in Exploring Oil, Natural Gas

Sudan Events – Agencies 

Turkey and Somalia signed an energy exploration and drilling deal on Thursday, further strengthening bilateral ties after concluding a defence agreement last month.
The agreement was signed by Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar and Somali Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed in Istanbul.
The move came after Ethiopia signed an agreement in January that grants it naval and commercial access to ports along Somaliland’s coast, in exchange for recognition of the breakaways region’s independence.
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.
The “historic” deal also reportedly empowers Turkey to develop Somalia’s maritime resources in its exclusive economic zone.
The Turkish Navy has already operated off the shore of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden under a UN mission to combat piracy and armed robbery since 2009.
Turkey has years of experience 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.
In 2022, the Somali government signed an exploration deal with US-based Coastline Exploration for seven offshore blocks. Drilling is planned to start in 2025.
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 5bn barrels of oil, is set to start later this year.
Mogadishu views the deal as illegitimate and considers it null and void.
The Turkey-Somalia deal would require extensive efforts on the Turkish side to drill and develop resources, according to a Turkish energy expert.