Somalia is on the verge of embarking on its first-ever offshore oil drilling operation, marked by the arrival of the Turkish drillship Çagir Bey in Somali waters on Friday. The Turkish Petroleum Corporation’s deep-water drilling vessel will conduct its first international mission off the Somali coast, and is expected to begin drilling at the Curad-1 well in the current month. Seismic data suggests Somalia’s offshore basins could hold between 30 billion and 40 billion barrels of oil and gas equivalent.
