Turkiye signed an offshore oil and natural gas cooperation deal with Somalia on Thursday, the Turkish Energy Ministry said, further strengthening bilateral ties after agreeing a defence deal last month.
According to the report, the Energy Ministry said the deal, which it described as an inter-governmental agreement, includes exploration, evaluation, development and production of oil in Somalia’s land and sea blocks.
“With this agreement, we will carry out joint activities to bring the resources of Somalia to the Somali people. We aim to strengthen Turkiye’s presence in the Horn of Africa with new collaborations in the field of energy,” Energy Minister, Alparslan Bayraktar, said on social media platform X.
“Oil and natural gas exploration offshore of Somalia, and it looks more like oil for now, will start very soon in the areas we have identified. We will, maybe, send our seismic (exploration) vessel there in the first phase,” he said separately in a panel, without elaborating.
The deal includes transportation, distribution, refining, sales and services operations of oil and other products from land and sea projects, the Ministry also said.
