Ankara (KAAB TV) – Turkey’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar, expressed hope for the successful execution of the DFS-Turkey agreement on cooperation in oil exploration and production in Somalia reached last month in a special interview with Turkish media on Friday, NTV.
The Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources said that oil drilling off Somalia’s coast will start official next year, in 2025.
“There is an area in the Somali Sea that we believe may contain many oil reserves,” Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.
He continued on to say that they plan to explore oil drilling in the Somali Sea, which will start next year in 2025.
In his interview, the minister also revealed that a Natural Resources Exploration Vessel will be sent to Somalia’s coast to conduct oil and natural resource exploration activities in the Somali Sea.
The governments of Turkey and Somalia at the beginning of the last month of March signed an agreement on the collaboration of oil and natural resources on the coast of Somalia, in order to expand the cooperation between the two countries, after the defense agreement they signed in 2024.
On the other side, in a statement released by Turkey’s Minister of Energy and Natural riches, Alparslan Bayraktar, he said that based on the agreement, they will collaborate to bring Somalia’s riches to Somali people.
The DFS-Turkey agreement also includes provisions for the refining, distribution, sales, and service of the Projects’ oil and other goods.
In February 2024, the Somali and Turkish governments inked an agreement on defence and economic cooperation, as well as providing Maritime Security Support to the DFS to defend the Federal Republic of Somalia’s maritime border.
The Turkish government, in close cooperation with DFS, provides support in education, health, basic infrastructure, and humanitarian aid in Somalia.
According to Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, trade between the two countries was 187.3 million dollars in 2018, and 250.85 million dollars in 2019.