Turkey’s drilling ship in Somalia

Somalia has begun its first offshore oil drilling campaign with Türkiye after President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud welcomed the drillship Çağrı Bey in Mogadishu last week. (reuters.com) (sonna.so) The Turkish vessel arrived in Somali waters on April 9 and headed for the Curad-1 well after ceremonies in Mogadishu on April 10 and April 12. Türkiye’s energy ministry says the campaign is the country’s first deep-sea exploration drilling operation abroad. (aa.com.tr) (reuters.com) Offshore drilling means boring through the seabed from a ship to test whether oil or gas is trapped in rock below. In this case, Türkiye says Çağrı Bey will drill to 7,500 meters over 288 days at Curad-1, about 372 kilometers off Mogadishu. (trtworld.com) (al-monitor.com) This well comes after a separate Turkish ship, Oruç Reis, spent 234 days collecting three-dimensional seismic data in Somali waters in 2024 and 2025. Those surveys covered 4,464 square kilometers across three offshore blocks and were used to pick drilling targets. (aa.com.tr) (hiiraan.com) The drilling push follows a hydrocarbons agreement signed on March 7, 2024, between Somalia and Türkiye. Somalia’s government said the deal covers exploration, assessment, development and production in onshore and offshore blocks. (hbs.gov.so) For Somalia, the project is an attempt to turn a long-discussed offshore resource base into an actual test well after years of conflict, weak institutions and delayed licensing. For Türkiye, it extends an energy strategy that had focused mainly on the Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean into the Horn of Africa. (reuters.com) (al-monitor.com) The venture also lands in a politically sensitive setting. Türkiye has become one of Somalia’s closest security and infrastructure partners, and the 2024 energy deal drew scrutiny after parts of the text circulated publicly and critics said the terms favored Ankara too heavily. (hbs.gov.so) (eastleighvoice.co.ke) (nordicmonitor.com) Somali and Turkish officials have framed the operation as a state partnership rather than a private wildcat bet. Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said the mission opens “a brand-new chapter” for both countries, while Somali officials said the ship’s arrival marked the formal start of deep-sea hydrocarbon exploration. (aa.com.tr) (sonna.so) The next test is simpler than the ceremony: whether Curad-1 finds commercially useful oil or gas after months of drilling in deep water. Until then, Çağrı Bey is both Somalia’s first offshore well and Türkiye’s first attempt to drill one abroad. (trtworld.com) (reuters.com)