{"id":13131,"date":"2023-01-12T08:38:55","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T08:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/?p=13131"},"modified":"2023-01-12T08:38:55","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T08:38:55","slug":"somaliland-oil-discovery-a-welcome-gift-to-the-horn-of-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/somaliland-oil-discovery-a-welcome-gift-to-the-horn-of-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Somaliland Oil Discovery, A Welcome Gift to the Horn of Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite over a decade of oil exploration in the horn of Africa, a working petroleum system, easy access to the market and over 60 wells, the dream of a commercial oil and gas discovery has remained elusive.<\/p>\n<p>While the entire Somalia including Somaliland, which the Federal Government has little or no control of, is covered with sedimentary basins there has been only four prominent hydrocarbon plays at the Dagah Shabelle, Biyo Darer, Bandar Harshau and Dab Qua. The last of these wells drilled after 1990 is the Shabelle-1 by Horn Petroleum which yeided 32.2 API oil and gas shows although the appraisal well Shabelle North 1 turned out dry.<\/p>\n<p>Acknowledged by many geologists is that the basins especially in Somaliland are a continuation of the Arabic plate which has prolific rift basins which have yielded an estimated seven billion barrels of oil to date. It is not a surprise that many oil and gas majors have explored the country before the civil wars and many retain licenses despite declaring force majeure decades ago including Shell and ExxonMobil.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DOWNLOAD your copy of the new released\u00a0SOMALIA UPSTREAM SECTOR OVERVIEW AND OUTLOOK\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/product\/somalia-upstream-sector-overview-and-outlook\/\">HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Due to security reasons and an unstable political environment many companies have shied away choosing to have a wait-and-see attitude leaving the ground to more risk-averse juniors including Coastline Exploration, RAK Gas, Genel Energy, OPIC, Afentra, Jacka Resources among others.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/somaliland-has-genel-energy-discovered-oil-in-salaxley\/\">announcement<\/a> by Somaliland&#8217;s Ministry of Energy and Minerals of an oil find in the Salaxley district will bring much-needed interest in the region expected to have an estimated 30 billion barrels in the just awarded seven blocks to Coastline Exploration. In total Somalia is estimated to hold over 110 billion barrels of oil placing it in the top ten largest reserves globally ahead of the UAE.<\/p>\n<p>This oil dream may however remain a mirage unless the political and security system is streamlined to reduce risks for investors and a clear control structure is established. Just recently the Federal Government of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/somalia-federal-government-declares-genel-energy-operations-in-somaliland-illegal\/\">Somalia<\/a> termed the ongoing exploration by Genel Energy as illegal while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/somaliland-defends-issuance-of-exploration-licences-in-an-increasing-war-of-words-with-somalia\/\">Somaliland<\/a> defended the company PSA citing its Petroleum Act (Upstream Petroleum Act 95\/2015).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite over a decade of oil exploration in the horn of Africa, a working petroleum system, easy access to the market and over 60 wells, the dream of a commercial &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/somaliland-oil-discovery-a-welcome-gift-to-the-horn-of-africa\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":12553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7442,7443,11],"tags":[9279,10208,860,976,1192,8661,2119,2297,2352,2356],"class_list":["post-13131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-countries","category-eastern-africa","category-top-news","tag-afentra","tag-coastline-exploration","tag-exxonmobil","tag-genel-energy","tag-jacka-resources","tag-opic","tag-rak-gas","tag-shell","tag-somalia","tag-somaliland","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/AGS-Seismic.webp?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JWkQ-3pN","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2528,"url":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/horn-petroleum-halts-exploration-puntland-somalia\/","url_meta":{"origin":13131,"position":0},"title":"Horn Petroleum halts exploration in Puntland, Somalia","author":"","date":"February 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Horn Petroleum Corporation\u00a0a subsidiary of Africa Oil has said it will significantly reduce its activities in its Dharoor and Nugaal PSC areas pending a resolution of the political situation between the Regional Government of Puntland and the Federal Government of Somalia regarding the legitimacy of oil concession contracts. The company\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Top News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Top News","link":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/category\/top-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/puntlandoil.jpg?fit=640%2C423&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/puntlandoil.jpg?fit=640%2C423&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/puntlandoil.jpg?fit=640%2C423&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2072,"url":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/insecurity-political-issues-continue-to-haunt-exploration-in-puntland-somalia\/","url_meta":{"origin":13131,"position":1},"title":"Insecurity, Political issues continue to haunt exploration in Puntland, Somalia","author":"Samuel Kamau Mbote","date":"November 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"[twitter-follow screen_name='oilnewskenya'] Insecurity continues to paralyze oil and exploration in Puntland with many companies holding back activities until a solution is sought. Just recently Horn Petroleum which holds licenses Puntland\u2019s Dharoor and Nugaal blocks recently told its shareholders it had halted the planned seismic acquisition in the Dharoor Valley area\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Oil Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Oil Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/category\/oil-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/dharoor-valley-of-puntland-oil-block.jpg?fit=380%2C306&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":722,"url":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/challenges-of-having-an-exploration-license-in-somalia\/","url_meta":{"origin":13131,"position":2},"title":"Challenges of having an oil exploration license in Somalia","author":"Samuel Kamau Mbote","date":"March 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"DNO of Norway currently holds a production sharing contract in Block SL-18 following the signing of an agreement with the republic of Somaliland in April last year. In a country that has autonomous regions the same block is however being contested by 3 \u2018states\u2019 including Somaliland, Somalia and Khatumo. DNO\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Oil Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Oil Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/category\/oil-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/nugaal.png?fit=436%2C254&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2573,"url":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/uncertainty-legitimacy-pscs-somalia-keeps-explorers-bay\/","url_meta":{"origin":13131,"position":3},"title":"Uncertainty over legitimacy of PSC\u2019s in Somalia keeps explorers at bay","author":"","date":"February 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the past few months a number of explorers searching for oil and gas in Puntland and Somaliland have closed shop as border wrangles between the autonomous states Somalia continue. More recently to stop exploration activity was Horn Petroleum which said it was unable to continue with its search in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Top News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Top News","link":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/category\/top-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/oil_gas_somali.jpg?fit=280%2C250&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13041,"url":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/somaliland-defends-issuance-of-exploration-licences-in-an-increasing-war-of-words-with-somalia\/","url_meta":{"origin":13131,"position":4},"title":"Somaliland Defends Issuance of Exploration Licences In an Increasing War of Words With Somalia","author":"","date":"December 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The people's republic of Somaliland has defended exploration licenses issued to international oil corporations including Genel Energy following a statement terming issuance of PSCs to international investors as illegal. In a statement dated 29th December 2022 the Somaliland Government defended its rights to issue such permits pointing to the authority\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Countries&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Countries","link":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/category\/countries\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Somaliland-SL10B13-Block.jpg?fit=531%2C399&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Somaliland-SL10B13-Block.jpg?fit=531%2C399&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Somaliland-SL10B13-Block.jpg?fit=531%2C399&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1381,"url":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/africa-oil-halts-its-puntland-operations-over-border-issues\/","url_meta":{"origin":13131,"position":5},"title":"Africa Oil halts its Puntland operations over border issues","author":"Samuel Kamau Mbote","date":"July 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Statement by Africa Oil In response to on-going media allegations about our operations in Ethiopia and Somalia, we believe it is\u00a0important that we provide further facts about the situation on the ground to a wider audience. Our\u00a0statement in regards to our Ethiopian operations is already on the front page of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Oil Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Oil Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/category\/oil-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/puntlandoil.jpg?fit=640%2C423&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/puntlandoil.jpg?fit=640%2C423&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/puntlandoil.jpg?fit=640%2C423&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13131"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13134,"href":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13131\/revisions\/13134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}