Follow-ups:(HAPC)team:
The Somali capital, Mogadishu, and other regions are witnessing an unprecedented rise in fuel prices, with the price of a single barrel reaching $280, amid increasing demand and a lack of supplies .
According to data from gas stations in Mogadishu, the price per liter fluctuates between $1.50 and $1.70 across the capital’s districts .
The reason for this crisis is the regional war taking place between several countries in the Middle East. Although two ships arrived during the past two days, they were quickly sold out due to traders rushing to buy them as soon as they arrived .
The current oil crisis in Somalia has raised questions and waves of anger among the Somali people about the investment agreements in the field of oil extraction between Turkey and Somalia, which have not yielded results for two years. The Turkish state-owned company TPAO began oil exploration work in several oil-rich areas in Somalia, promising to start oil production by 2025 or in the middle of it, but to this day it has not fulfilled that promise .
It is worth noting that on October 25, 2024, the Turkish state-owned company TPAO entered the investment phase for oil and gas exploration and drilling blocks in Somalia, where the Somalis expressed great optimism when the company confirmed that the actual phase of oil extraction would begin for the first time in early or mid-2025, but it has not fulfilled its promise to this day .
Attempts to explore for Somali oil date back to the 1960s, beginning with the period of trusteeship, continuing through the Somali military rule, and culminating in the collapse of the central government in 1991. These attempts were made by international American and Italian oil companies, most notably Chevron in the 1980s and Coastline. Exploration under the name “Soma Oil” in 2013, in addition to the British exploration company Spectrum in 2015, all of which failed and stopped under the pretext of the absence of security, armed conflicts, and the unsuitability of the infrastructure to enable investment .
Observers describe the leniency shown by the Mogadishu government towards the Turkish company ” Tabaw ” as having made it stall on its promise to this day, despite the favorable conditions for exploration and extraction .
Exploration survey reports from the past indicate that Somalia ranks third in Africa after Libya and Nigeria, possessing oil reserves of approximately 110 billion barrels. Despite this enormous quantity of oil, the Somali people have not been able to extract even a single liter of it to this day. The question on the Somali street remains: Where are we regarding the promises of allied Turkey and today’s suffocating crisis?