Somalia and Turkey are mulling partnership opportunities to work together to explore Mogadishu’s hydrocarbon potential, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said.
In an interview with Anadolu Agency during his two-day visit to Turkey on the invitation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Mohamud shared his thoughts on Turkey’s support for Mogadishu’s fight against terrorism, the partnership with Turkey in hydrocarbon resources, and Somalia’s strategy in the fight against the Al-Shabaab terrorist group.
Speaking on the partnership between Somalia and Turkey to explore hydrocarbon resources in Somalia, Mohamud said: “Turkey is a very advanced country in terms of technology, know-how, and technical expertise. We trust the Turkish government, we trust Turkish companies as a partner.”
“There are certain processes and discussions going on about how we can work together on this hydrocarbon issue between the governments of Somalia and Turkey,” Mohamud noted.
“So, we started already discussing the government-to-government partnership in hydrocarbon. We are at the initial stage but we are working together,” he added.
Touching upon Somalia’s struggle with the lack of data on its hydrocarbon resources, he said when he was elected president for the first time in 2012, there was no data available at all on hydrocarbon resources.
“We started in 2015 to make to re-establish a data system. Today there is very good data about Somalia’s hydrocarbon potential. That data is not enough,” he said.
“Somalia has got the largest coastline in Africa. All is not surveyed. Partially it has been surveyed and because of Al-Shabaab, the assessment on the ground is very limited. But at least it has enough data to go.”
The country is establishing the relevant entities for the exploitation of these resources, he underlined.