As Somalia starts to emerge from instability and chaos, 20 years of relative peace and stability are starting to pay dividends for its close neighbor Somaliland.

This November, it struck its first major oil deal since seceding from Somalia in 1991. Anglo-Turkish company Genel Energy received its license from the Somaliland government in early November to explore and develop oil and gas reserves after pledging almost $40 million for exploration activities.

The independent oil and gas exploration and production company has become the first foreign investor to commit a significant amount of capital to the country’s energy sector, after initial investigations demonstrated numerous oil seeps Confirming a working hydrocarbon system, a statement from Genel said.

Genel Energy, headed by erstwhile BP CEO Tony Hayward, is due to start exploration before the end of the year.

The driving force of this Horn of Africa nation’s economy has traditionally been livestock. With a livestock population that triples the 3.5 million civilian populations, the livestock trade generates up to 65 per cent of the country’s GDP, Somaliland’s Minister of Planning Saad Shire said.

With a limited national budget of $120 million the Somaliland government is now starting to receive much-needed revenue from foreign private investors to support its development.

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Somaliland’s oil and gas reserves attracted the attention of other giant energy companies such as South African-based Ophir Energy, Jacka Resources Ltd of Australia, and Petrosoma Ltd, a subsidiary of British-based Prime Resources ? all of whom announced their readiness to invest.

Somaliland has suffered from not being internationally recognized for the past 21 years. Its unconfirmed legal identity has hindered its economic prospects of a  few insurance companies have been prepared to insure foreign investors here. Subsequently, investors have tended to regard Somaliland as an economic leper.

For these reasons, the country has also been ineligible for financial support from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. However, in 2012 Somaliland’s private sector started to progress against the odds.

At the beginning of the year, the first UK-Somaliland investment conference was held to stimulate bilateral trade recognition. And a $17 million Coca Cola plant launched in May by a Djibouti conglomerate made it the largest private investment in Somaliland since 1991.

Investors are seeing Coca Cola?s decision to have an operation in the region as a positive statement about the country’s stable business climate.

Somaliland’s Berbera port is also expected to attract major investment in the coming years. Built originally by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the port currently serves as a major gateway for the country’s livestock exports. There is huge potential for it to be a juncture for oil and gas exports coming out of landlocked countries like Ethiopia.

The port manager, Ali Omar Mohamed, is enthusiastic about the potential of expanding the port to make it a regional trading hub between Africa and the Middle East.

We are strategically located  ,Berbera is located in a maritime lane 30,000 ships pass by our port every year from Europe, the Middle East and Asia. We can develop Berbera into a major port like Singapore with container terminals, free zones, oil refineries, and services related to maritime business, Shire said.

 

By muse ahmed

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1 COMMENT

  1. Warning!

    Somaliland people, please guard your peace and security from enemies within and without, the enemies will stop at nothing to destabilize your Country. They will lie to their teeth to tell the world communities that Somaliland is security risk do not visit or invest but, you have proven them wrong on many occasions I hope you will continue to do again and again.
    May ALLAH bless Somaliland and its people. AMIN!

    • Amiin to that.

      Insha'allah we will be able to progress Somaliland-Republic cause by sustaining peace and enhancing the fledgling democracy into a better more representative full democracy with this New wealth.

      🙂 No More begging NGOs and the international community.

      – no more Tahriib of our university graduates to die in the Sahara desert.
      – no more snow winters and Hay-fever summers.
      – We can finally go home when we strike oil.

  3. Thank God, the almighty who always support our people in his own way. We have succeeded many hurdles that our enemy has put on our road forward, and reached our goal by-day-in-day-out, and rest will eventually come once we, the people of Somaliland hold hands. Anytime, some group of ill hearts try to extinguish the flame we carry to succeed, the almighty does otherwise, and they fail. This is Somaliland and its people, hence, those haters and ignorant who wish that Somaliland fails, will always be in mud they are in.

    Be aware those of us, who are selfish, and do not care what has happened to our people [their mothers] and those whom they belong. Watch-out and do not listen to the people like Jamaal Madar and his likes. Somaliland BIKHAYR and will be BIKHAYR, INSHA ALLAAH.

  4. No one will heavlly invest in soamli territory that include s/land region UNTIL real peace comes to somalia as a whole. let's not lie to our self's.

    • Jama Irak is a mess but in Kurdistan Irak, many company invest there so no need of really peace. Somali territory include also Kil 5/ NFD and Djibouti what u forget them? lol.

      • Hornid.

        You can't compare iraq to somalia including all somali semi- autonomous states s/land and Puntland, iraq have real goverment and part of world economy.

        KIll5/NFD is totaly different BOX. well, Djiboute not 100% somali.

          • Nice said Buuxiye walanweyn and Faqash always forget Somalilander do not consider them as pure somali . lol

          • Somaliland region= 50% isaq Habashi not pure somalis
            Djibouti = 39% Afar
            Rest of somallia= 10% Bantu, 5% Arabs

            If inhabitants 80% and above pure somalis then that place can be call SOMALI AREA.

          • Whats Wrong with Being Bantu ? They are créatures of god just like you so stop the BS ! Beside don’t Forget that all the Bantu countries in the world are doing better than your little enclave.

  5. MMmm another Berbera port and oil story. Guys stop writing this bullsh!t.
    Every country along the Red Sea has a port!!! How can a port be our usp. And as for oil, if you guys really think Hayword and his mickey mouse Turkish Genel operation will bring us the good times, then Santa is just around the corner folks. We are not a UAE, a Saudi, Kuwait or a Libya dripping in the black stuff.
    Want to get rich folks???? Then stop imagining bullsh!t and work hard like the Japs in 1945.

    • Yusuf…think of what the GCC or Libya were like b4 the black stuff. In fact, Somaliland lay below
      sea level underneath the GCC and believed to be sitting on the heart of these black stuff..real big fortunes in commercial quantities. Every dog has his day…Somaliland's dog day is about to happen.
      The smells of it is just beginning with the Genel,Jacka,Petrosoma London based HQs whose ex BP
      CEO Chief is MR Tony Hayward. SHHHH keep the devils out…..real exploration is about to begin.
      Hopefully, Somaliland would become oil exporter and become modernand civilized country in the
      near future.
      Cheers.

  6. I am realy amused by the hateful comments by southerners. I always ask myself why do they hate Somalinders. What is the pyschology behind it. The only logical answer is that they just cannot come to terms with their own failures, lack of morals, ethics and they want to project these deficits to the morally superior Somalilnders. We have a culture and thats what makes us different from them. A group or a society that lacks civil value, and ethics are a pack of animals. In a nutshell this is my analysis of the the moral decay that characterise southerners today and this reflects their language and lack of civility to others and to themselves. Can you just leave us alone, we made pou into a nation, and when we left you guys you descedanded into chaos and became a buch hyenas that prey on each other. Get a culture or revive your culture – culture is what makes you a human being .

    • Osman Ali
      Well chronicalled observation. I always wonder why they are called Zoomalians. Ilayn magac bilaash uma baxo.

  7. I don't know about you folks but I'm going to put my last penny on Somaliland's oil explorations. Things are lining up for Somaliland in a positive way. A lot of asset management executives are advising their clients to invest in Somaliland with a great confidence.

  10. Puntland has oil and is waiting for the SFG to get their act together and help create the remaining federal states, so they can then negation the sharing agreement. VIVA FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF SOMALIA, which you are a part and parcel too. Know that Khaatumo and others won't let you take their oil.

  11. Enjoy the Dry land that is all yours. Leave other people's land alone, go with your and do what you wish with it, also too my fellow Somali patriot Isaaqs you are welcome to any part of Somalia. VIVA FRS

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