Türkiye eyes oil exploration in Somalia in 2025

Türkiye plans to begin searching for oil deposits on the Somali shelf, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said in an interview with NTV, Report informs.

“In our opinion, there may be offshore oil reserves in Somalia. We are going to begin seismic work, and we want to conduct deep-sea drilling in 2025,” Bayraktar said.

Regarding geological exploration work in Türkiye, the minister noted that this year it is planned to drill 140 wells to search for deposits of hydrocarbon resources.

“There are wells that we plan to drill in Hakkari, Van, northwest of Gabar (field) and right on the border (with Iraq). We have a very ambitious exploration program for 2024 - drilling 140 wells. I hope that as a result we will discover new reserves there and add them to existing ones," the minister said.

The Turkish energy minister also said that if the goal of increasing daily production from the Gabar field in the southeastern province of Sirnak from the current about 40,000 barrels to 100,000 barrels is achieved, with the current oil prices on world markets, this will have an economic value of $3 billion.

“We have set strategic goals in exploration and production. First, there will be no region left unexplored in Türkiye. We decided that we would move on to previously explored areas and re-evaluate them. The Gabar field is the result of such an assessment,” the minister added.