Shell/Exxon advance together
A recent visit to Shell's headquarters in The Hague by Somali's natural resources minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed had been awaited [...]
Published on 12 June 2014
London goes into the offensive in oil
The backing London has given the Somalian government is not without mercantile ulterior motives. Among other things, it will allow British consultants and oil companies to be well placed when the country's security situation improves so that mineral resources can be extracted. However, in so doing, the British government is caught between its pragmatism which pushes it to take the autonomous regional entities (Somaliland, Puntland and Jubaland) into account and its desire to forge privileged ties with the federal government in Mogadishu which does not recognise these regional states. A recent British-funded report on the oil sector carried out by the firm Adam Smith International (ASI) brought this contradiction to a head. We go back to look at the events that led to this situation.
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SOMALIA 08/07/2014
SOMALIA 23/05/2014
Farah Abdi Hassan Free
Writing in a 14-page long comment sent to the British consultancy Adam Smith International (ASI) last month, the director general [...]
SOMALIA 23/05/2014
Explosive report on oil sector Free
Adam Smith International’s study on the extractive industries in Somalia has produced an outcry in Mogadishu. [...]
SOMALIA 23/05/2014
Adam Smith International Free
The recent 80-page report on the extractive industry in Somalia by Adam Smith International (ASI), had a very frosty reception [...]
SOMALIA 09/05/2014
Mogadishu applies pressure on ENI Free
After flirting with the idea of publicly denouncing the Italian company ENI, the Somalian oil ministry finally entered dialogue with its executives. [...]
SOMALIA 24/01/2014
Soma Oil’s Russian sponsors Free
Soma Oil & Gas, which is headed by Michael Howard, the former chairman of the UK Conservative Party, has found some Russian financial backers. [...]
Adventurers drawn by the scent of oil Free
A Canadian investment fund specialised in contracts with African breakaway movements has its eye on Somalian oil. Kilimanjaro Capital, founded [...]
SOMALIA 17/09/2013
Jay Park Free
After running the oil and gas department of the Canadian law firm McLeod Dixon for over 30 years, Jay Park [...]
SOMALIA 03/09/2013
Howard in oil play Free
A company headed by former British Conservative Party leader Michael Howard (who now goes under the title of Lord Howard [...]
An oil war in the offing Free
The Somalian government decided on June 7 to extend the country's territorial waters to 200 nautical miles and chose a [...]
SOMALIA 01/03/2013
Shell clings firmly to its concession Free
Shell’s permit in Somalia has lain idle for decades because of "force majeure" but the company clearly prizes the acreage. [...]
Ministry petroleum team set up Free
Somalian Minister of Natural Resources Abdirizak Omar Mohamed has just set up his new oil team. On February 17, he [...]
Total wondering about block L22 Free
After the Norwegian firm Statoil, which dropped block L26 because it was situated in a maritime zone whose boundaries were [...]
SOMALIA 19/10/2012
On the hunt for oil companies Free
The advisors to the outgoing oil minister, Abdulkadir Mohamed Diesow, are bustling about while they wait to find out who will be their new boss. [...]
SOMALIA 09/10/2012
Shell tests the waters Free
The apparent improvement in the political and security situation in Mogadishu has prompted the Anglo-Dutch major to make fresh contact with the local authorities. [...]
From civil war to squabbling over oil Free
The prospect that conditions conducive to searching for oil in Somalia are returning has resulted in a variety of initiatives. And this despite the fact that the civil war against the Al Shabaab Islamists has not yet been won, even [. [...]