Somaliland gears up for first licensing round
The Somaliland Ministry of Water and Mineral Resources Ministry announced that the country's first bid round for
hydrocarbon concessions will open in February. The bid round will include eight concession blocks comprised of more
than 89,624 sq km of onshore and offshore areas.
The geology off the coast of Somaliland is analogous to the oil-producing basins in nearby Yemen that have yielded
several discoveries to date. Yemen's Balhaf Graben Basin and Somaliland's Berbera Basin contain striking similarities
in fault trends and structural complexity. Additional indicators of hydrocarbon reserve potential are the
naturally-occurring oil and gas seeps at Dagah Shabel, and most historical wells in the area contain multiple zones
with shows of oil and/or gas.
In preparation for the Somaliland licensing round, TGS-Nopec Geophysical Company acquired 5,300 km of seismic,
gravity and magnetic data in the offshore areas and 34,700 km of high resolution aeromagnetic data covering all known
petroleum basins. The surveys mark the first new geophysical data acquired in the area in almost 30 years.
Data acquisition was completed in 2007-2008, and TGS used this data along with existing well logs and interpreted
data to create comprehensive interpretation reports for the Ministry. The reports, as well as the newly acquired
geophysical data and well logs are all multi-client products to be exclusively marketed by TGS on behalf of the
Ministry.
"We are very excited about the renewal of hydrocarbon exploration in Somaliland," said his Excellency, Mr Qasim Sh.
Yusuf Ibrahim, the Minster of Water and Mineral Resources in Somaliland. "The previous drilling has proven the
existence of hydrocarbons and the reservoir class rock formations. With the help of the new geophysical data we can
now map the structures needed to identify where the hydrocarbons are trapped."
The timing for this historic bid round is as follows:
-- February 19, 2009 -- Bid round opens
-- August 15, 2009 -- Final submission of bids
-- December 15, 2009 -- Expected award of concessions
