Somaliland sun – Authorities in Puntland a Semi-autonomous region of Somalia are in advanced stages to resume offshore oil exploration
Despite the disappointment that met initial exploration by Range Resources (RRL) and Red Emperor Resources (RMP) after drilling resulted in water rather than oil that precipitated the withdrawal of the companies from drilling operations in the Shabeel North well the Puntland Petroleum Minerals Agency (PPMA) is assessing new plays to resume exploration.
After the PPMA demarcated its offshore territory into 25 exploration blocks covering 180,000sq km of the Somalia Puntland seaboard it went further and awarded ION Geophysical a contract to acquire 8000km of seismic data covering the entire Somalia Puntland offshore margin.
Thus almost re-launching oil exploration activities abandoned a year ago after the water instead of oil fiasco at the shabeel north well and more so breaking the stronghold of a 1999 force-majeure that halted exploration following the outbreak of civil war in Somalia.
Data acquisition by ION Geophysics is expected to begin in Q4 2015 reports Elaine Maslin in a piece titled Somalia eyes return to exploration
