The oil deals that Somalia has already signed with Turkey and the one that is currently being discussed

According to Anadolu news agency, Turkey and Somalia have discussed energy cooperation between the two countries. while the Minister of Petroleum and Minerals of Somalia Abdirisaq Omar Mohamed was in Turkey and met with his Turkish counterpart Alparslan Bayraktar.

In a brief statement from the meeting, which was released by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources in Turkey, he said during a meeting that measures to improve bilateral cooperation were discussed.

Both sides did not officially announce that an official agreement was reached at the meeting, but some media published that the two ministries signed an agreement.

This discussion comes after the Government of Turkey and Somalia signed an agreement on defense and economic cooperation, in which the Government of Turkey will protect the coast of Somalia.

The Turkish Navy has already been operating in the waters of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden as part of the United Nations anti-piracy mission since 2009.

The previous oil agreements between Somalia and Turkey

In June 2016, Somalia and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding on energy and mining. This agreement was set up by the failed Afghan coup that took place in Turkey on July 15, 2016, but the agreement came to the table of importance in Turkey after President Erdogan brought it before the parliament of his country to approve it.

At the beginning of 2020, the President of Turkey, while talking about the maritime delimitation agreement between Libya and Turkish exploration ships in the eastern Mediterranean, he also revealed for the first time that Somalia invited Turkey to search for oil in its sea. just returned from a conference on the Libyan situation in Berlin.

The agreement that Turkey made with Libya has not borne fruit so far.

"There is a demand from Somalia that they say 'Oil is in our sea, you are conducting an operation [sea oil exploration] in Libya, but you can do it here,'" Erdogan said while speaking on NTV television. "Therefore, there will be measures that we will take [for oil exploration] there."

On the eighth of February 2020, the President of Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, approved the Petroleum Law of the Federal Republic of Somalia after passing the law in the Somali Parliament. The law established the Somali Petroleum Agency (SPA).

On the other hand, Somalia has signed oil-related agreements with western companies, which have been saying for a long time that they have been operating in Somalia since before the collapse.

Other oil deals

In 2022, Somalia signed an oil exploration agreement with an American company called Coastline, which was planning to explore 7 wells and drilling should begin in 2025.

The controversial agreement signed by the then minister Abdirashid Mohamed with this company was handed over to the leaders of the country.

The president of Somalia issued a press release when the news broke, canceling the agreement with the Minister of Petroleum and Minerals.

"The Presidency of the Federal Republic confirms that the agreement signed by the Minister of Petroleum and Minerals did not have any consultation with the President of JFS, Mr. Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo," the press release said.

But that agreement was brought back by the government led by President Hassan Sheikh with some changes.

In the same year 2022, Somaliland entered into an agreement with an oil company from Taiwan based in London called General Energy, and the Somali government described the agreement as illegal and null and void.

Somalia, which has been exploring for oil since the 1950s, has yet to produce oil. But a report published by the United States government said that Somalia can have at least 30 billion barrels of oil reserves, many companies like Royal Dutch Shell and AxxonMobile that were working in Somalia before the fall of the government left the country due to the collapse.

The Somali government also announced in an interview with the BBC that by the end of 2024, Somalia's first oil will be produced.

Many countries are in strong competition to benefit from Somalia's natural resources.