Somalilandsun- In the last decade several large Gas discoveries have been in East Africa, with up to 200 tcf of gas, equivalent to more than 30 Bbbl of oil reserves, have been discovered in Mozambique and Tanzania in recent years.
These huge discoveries are currently being queued up for development and are seeking an export market.
It is then with great excitement that Spectrum’s new seismic data, collected between 2014-2016 offshore Somalia, has revealed what has been previously missing from the East African margin – the scent of oil.
As Somalia announces plans to open its first offshore exploration license round, (orange, left of featured image) explorers analysing new seismic data have recognized the potential of finding reserves to match those of its neighbours in East Africa.
Beyond that, critically, they are discovering that Somalia’s potential is not just gas: Here lies a gem of an unexplored oil basin.
And as Somalia Awakens As East Africa’s Oil Province, Federal authorites in Mogadishu have set 7 February 2019 for an auspicious launch event in London at Claridges Hotel where the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources will unveil the final block delineation, expected to consist of up to 50 blocks covering a total area of over 173,000 km2. Read more
In Somalilamd neighbouring Somalia to the east and home to billions of untapped barrels of oil things are not going proper.
Discover more about the license round, the geolgy of this area and Spectrum’s associated seismic coverage on our unique interactive LICENSE ROUND STORY MAP
Though millions of dollars have been spent by the over five foreign companies with concessions to explore for oil not to mention completed seismic data collection, the unrecognized status of Somaliland as a sovereign country internationally, is a major constraint.
Having withdrawan from its 1960 voluntary later Fateful union with Somalia a formerly Italian colony 27 years ago, Somaliland a former British protectorate is finding it difficult to actualize most international contracts.
Read: Oil and gas exploration activities in Somaliland
Simplly because Somalia still claims jurisdicational authority over Somaliand, a position which despite many achievements like security, democratization process, a functioning government etc is overtly supported by the international community, any mechanisms for tapping into this huge oil reserve is currently untenable.
