Turkey signed an offshore oil and natural gas cooperation deal with Somalia on Thursday, Reuters reported, citing the Turkish energy minister, further strengthening bilateral ties after agreeing to a defense deal last month.
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 blocs.
“With this agreement, we will conduct joint activities to bring the resources of Somalia to the Somali people. We aim to strengthen Turkey’s presence in the Horn of Africa with new collaboration in the energy field,” Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on social media platform X.
Somali Petrol ve Maden Kaynakları Bakanı Sayın Abdirizak Omar Mohamed ile Somali’nin kara ve açık deniz bloklarında petrol ve doğal gaz alanında iş birliğimizi geliştirmek üzere bir hükümetlerarası anlaşma ve mutabakat zaptı imzaladık.
Bu anlaşma ile Somali’nin sahip olduğu… pic.twitter.com/FpZMQ5O8im
— Alparslan Bayraktar (@aBayraktar1) March 7, 2024
“Oil and natural gas exploration off the coast of Somalia — and it looks more like oil for now — will start very soon in the areas we have identified. We may send our seismic [exploration] vessel there in the first phase,” he said separately at a panel discussion, without elaborating.
The deal includes transportation, distribution, refining and sales and services operations of oil and other products from land and sea projects, the ministry also said.
Turkey has become a close ally of the Somali government. It has built schools, hospitals and infrastructure and also provided scholarships for Somalis to study in Turkey.
In 2017 Turkey opened its biggest overseas military base in Mogadishu. Turkey also provides training to Somali military and police.
In February, Turkey signed a defense and economic cooperation agreement with Somalia and will provide maritime security support to help the African country defend its territorial waters.
Albayrak said Turkey was also interested in oil and gas exploration with Libya. In 2022 Ankara signed a deal similar to Thursday’s agreement with Somalia with Libya’s internationally recognized government in Tripoli.
“We are interested in Libya’s offshore areas, and our interest in some land areas continues. But Somalia is an exploration operation that we are especially considering on the sea,” he added.