Hargeisa (Halbeeg News) -The breakaway Somaliland has invited its neighbouring landlocked Ethiopia to export the soon-to-be-exploited gas and oil via new pipeline in northern Somalia.
In an article published by Bloomberg, the region’s Minister of Energy and Minerals Jama Mohamoud Igel said Somaliland is located at a strategic point near the Red Sea which is an easy way to export Ethiopia’s petroleum.
The minister has challenged Djibouti’s long-held plans for a conduit saying if Ethiopia opts to pipeline via Djibouti, the process more “expensive ”.
“Why not send natural gas and crude oil from the Ogaden basin to Somaliland’s coast at Berbera?, Such a pipeline would be more “cost-effective” at only 400 kilometers (249 miles), rather than the 700 kilometers to Djibouti, he said.
Jama didn’t specify which officials he’d made the suggestion to, saying “the decision is for the Ethiopian government.”
Somaliland, which unilaterally declared independence from civil war-ravaged Somalia in 1991 planning its own oil production.
Genel Energy Plc, an oil company founded by Nathaniel Rothschild and ex-BP Plc Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward, is preparing to drill as many as three wells in the territory’s east, where it has production-sharing agreements, Jama said.
Genel will start drilling at one well in the fourth-quarter of 2019, near Burao in the Togdheer region, according to Jama.
“There is oil for sure, but they have to come to know if this is viable for commercial business,” Jama told Bloomberg.
RAK Gas LLC of the U.A.E., which has production-sharing agreements for two blocks south and east of Berbera, is in talks with Genel over co-drilling arrangements, according to Jama.
Three Chinese companies will explore with local partners for jade in southeast Berbera, between the Genel and RAK gas blocks and near the U.A.E. base, according to Jama.
He said unidentified Canadian, Chinese, Norwegian and British companies are interested in exploring three offshore blocks on the approach to the Bab el-Mandeb, where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden.
Chinese and British companies are also in talks over two further onshore blocks at Somaliland’s border with Ethiopia.
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