Somalia: Turkey Expands Overseas Energy Drive With Somalia Emerging As Key Focus

What the report says

Turkey is stepping up plans to grow the international business of its state energy company, Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), with Somalia among the main countries in focus, according to Shabelle Media Network via AllAfrica. The report says the strategy also includes Iraq, Libya and Oman, as Ankara seeks to expand oil and gas production beyond its borders.

Turkey’s energy minister, Alparslan Bayraktar, said TPAO is working toward a major increase in combined domestic and overseas output by 2028, with a longer-term goal of reaching one million barrels of oil equivalent per day. Much of that growth is expected to come from the Sakarya Gas Field in the Black Sea, but the company is also turning earlier cooperation deals into direct investments, production-sharing agreements and drilling work abroad.

Somalia is described as a central part of this overseas push. TPAO has already carried out offshore seismic surveying there, using the research vessel Oruç Reis to collect data across three blocks, and is now drilling at the Curad-1 well off Somalia’s coast with the vessel Çağri Bey. The well is located far offshore near Mogadishu and in very deep water, making it a notable test case for Turkey’s energy ambitions in the Horn of Africa.

The outcome of Curad-1 could shape how far TPAO expands in Somalia. If successful, the project could make Somalia a significant source of future oil and gas output for Turkey’s state company.