Ophir Energy Somaliland

[HaragWafi85]

Does anybody know what potential oil blocks in Somaliland does Ophir have exploration licenses to? I know Prime Resources has exploration licenses in block 26.



November 25, 2011

Somaliland Expects Agreement With Ophir Energy ‘Within Weeks’

Somaliland expects to conclude a project- sharing agreement with Ophir Energy Plc, amid efforts to develop the territory’s potential oil deposits, an official said. The accord is currently being approved by Somaliland’s Council of Ministers and will be followed by the granting of approval to begin seismic surveys, Mining, Energy and Water Resources Minister Hussein Abdi Dualeh said in an interview.
“The process should be finalised within a few weeks,” Dualeh said by phone from Hargeisa, the capital, today.

Somaliland announced earlier this month that it will abandon efforts to reengage investors who left more than two decades ago at the outbreak of civil war in Somalia. Instead, the region initiated an “open door policy”, inviting potential investors to approach the government about onshore and offshore oil exploration. Tullow Oil Plc, the London-based explorer with the most licenses in Africa, expressed an interest in a licence and “indicated that they plan to visit Somaliland,” Dualeh said. Tullow officials are due to arrive in the country on Nov. 28 for further talks, he said.

Ophir, along with companies including U.K.-based Asante Oil and Prime Resources, hold exploration licenses that have been issued since 2003. Ophir is expected to complete seismic surveys by May 2013, Dualeh said.“Once this is done, we expect to them to go to the next exploration period, which would require Ophir to drill some wells,” he said.





http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-2 ... eeks-.html

http://somalilandpress.com/somaliland-e ... 0%99-24659

[HaragWafi85]

It seems the area they have exploration licenses in is Berbera of Saaxil region. This is from their own website.

Ophir Energy plc (Ophir) is an international oil and gas exploration company with an extensive portfolio of interests spread across the continent of Africa.
Ophir has an interest in 17 oil and gas projects in 8 different African jurisdictions.

"Only three wells have been drilled in the original Berbera Block, two of which were located offshore in block M10, where they encountered minor oil shows. The third well, the only onshore well in the block, was a 243m deep stratigraphic well. Three wells, drilled adjacent to the western edge of block 35 (Dagah Shabel 1-2-3) over the period from November 1958 to November 1959, all encountered good oil shows. The M10A/35 PSA, located in northern Somaliland, is predominantly onshore but also extends offshore into the Gulf of Aden. The block encompasses an area of 16,270km2 with a water depth of approximately 0 to 1,000m
"






http://www.ophirenergy.com/assets

[Saraxnow]

Very interesting.

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

I really hope oil is not found in Somaliland.

[dagameison]

I really hope oil is not found in Somaliland.

Dont worry they wont, They had this sort of licence agreement with asante who also apparently said they were going to go drilling right away this is back in 08 I dont think it will be much different for this other company either

[HaragWafi85]

abdi.ismail don't worry if oil is found in Somaliland it will be managed better inshallah. We are not like Puntland who are ridden with piracy +clan problems in the areas they claim there is oil in it.

Ophir has interests in 8 different African jurisdictions. They are the following Tanzania, Madagascar, Somaliland, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, Gabon, Congo(Brazzaville).

[samatar133]

If oil is found we should be very carefull about being trapped in what is called recouse curse problems hurting many recouse rich countries in the world or what economist call Dutch disease that vertually prevents industrialisation. If managed well insha allah it will be, it is good news for all us jeebado dhaadheer sii tosha

[HaragWafi85]

Pictures of the area.

OPHIR FIELD CREWS VERIFYING SEISMIC LINE LOCATIONS USING GPS.



TYPICAL TERRAIN WITHIN THE ONSHORE BERBERA PSA AREA.


REMAINS OF SEISMIC LINES CREATED BY PAST OPERATORS.



SEISMIC EXAMPLES FROM ONSHORE SOMALILAND.




http://www.ophirenergy.com/assets/somaliland#images

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

If oil is found we should be very carefull about being trapped in what is called recouse curse problems hurting many recouse rich countries in the world or what economist call Dutch disease that vertually prevents industrialisation. If managed well insha allah it will be, it is good news for all us jeebado dhaadheer sii tosha

This is my main concern. Even if the oil production is well managed and there is zero corruption, it will virtually destroy all forms of a secondary industry. The secondary industry is how you move yourself from a low-income high unemployment into a country with higher income and 100% employment. That's why India is being told to move from tertiary sector (service industries like IT, Outsourcing etc.) to the secondary sector (Clothing/tectiles, Steel manufacture, Auto-industry etcs) even though they've already started that process e.g. TATA industries. Look at China or the previous example of South Korea.

However, if the oil money is being used to build infrastrcuture and start a manufacturing sector then I'm all for it. The problem is complancency, I would rather be a rising giant like China and India even though they have a lower GDP per capita, than a useless oil-rich arab country with a high GDP per capita but sqaunders money on fancy hotels and airports instead of producing something useful.


That's all assuming there is oil ofcourse.

[samatar133]

[

This is my main concern. Even if the oil production is well managed and there is zero corruption, it will virtually destroy all forms of a secondary industry. The secondary industry is how you move yourself from a low-income high unemployment into a country with higher income and 100% employment. That's why India is being told to move from tertiary sector (service industries like IT, Outsourcing etc.) to the secondary sector (Clothing/tectiles, Steel manufacture, Auto-industry etcs) even though they've already started that process e.g. TATA industries. Look at China or the previous example of South Korea.

However, if the oil money is being used to build infrastrcuture and start a manufacturing sector then I'm all for it. The problem is complancency, I would rather be a rising giant like China and India even though they have a lower GDP per capita, than a useless oil-rich arab country with a high GDP per capita but sqaunders money on fancy hotels and airports instead of producing something useful.


That's all assuming there is oil ofcourse.

[/quote]

haa waa runtaa, aduunyada waxa ugu daran somaliland oo noqota like fat Arab Khalijis that are not good for anything, but to be honest with you we need large enough capital argently to kick start manufacturing sector. our financial sector is virtually non existant in terms of financing profitable investments, our government is too bankrupt to finance the huge amount of money needed to modernize infrastructure necessary in creating environment conductive to investment. Basically we have no money at all at the moment and our needs are too great, without oil or cheap loans, which are hardly available in today's world, where are we gana get funds to improve education and health which are corner stones for ecomomic development. I thing the most ideal situation for somaliland is to find oil or other recource worth between 1bilion to 2billion USD a year. in that case it won't be too large to be managed proberly and it won't create Khaliji like complacancy but it will help kick start main sectors of the economy.

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

haa waa runtaa, aduunyada waxa ugu daran somaliland oo noqota like fat Arab Khalijis that are not good for anything, but to be honest with you we need large enough capital argently to kick start manufacturing sector. our financial sector is virtually non existant in terms of financing profitable investments, our government is too bankrupt to finance the huge amount of money needed to modernize infrastructure necessary in creating environment conductive to investment. Basically we have no money at all at the moment and our needs are too great, without oil or cheap loans, which are hardly available in today's world, where are we gana get funds to improve education and health which are corner stones for ecomomic development. I thing the most ideal situation for somaliland is to find oil or other recource worth between 1bilion to 2billion USD a year. in that case it won't be too large to be managed proberly and it won't create Khaliji like complacancy but it will help kick start main sectors of the economy.

Bro that's exactly the crux of the matter. You are mistaken in thinking you need a lot of money to start a manufacturing industry, you don't on the flip-side you need to invest hundreds of millions if not billions to extract primary products such as oil, gas, metals etc. The ere is a reason why the primary sector is called "capital-intensive" because you need to loan a lot of money to kick start it and it doesn't even employ many people (which is of great importance). However, the manufacturing sector requires pennies compared to resource extraction and it also employs a lot of people, that's why it's called "labour-intensive". Think of how many people work at an oil rig or petroleum plant (10s of people to a couple of hundred tops) and how many people work in textile factories or shoe manufaturing industry (couple of thousand at least). The government can provide the funds through asking for loans and financial aid from the World-bank and IMF (which will be hard because we're not recognised but we can operate as a region under "Somalia") and then incentivise businesses, build infrastrucuture and we already have a very low currency value (something like $1 = SH6000 last time I was in Hargeisa) so we can be even more competitive than china in terms of cheap labour. Another plus side is these are low-skilled jobs that don't require much or any training and can be done by anyone. There's an opportunity in every situation if you look hard enough.

[dagameison]

Puntland has already gone to drilling phase. You know 1500 horse power top drive rigs, wells, water well dug up already majority of materials are on site or on route to the drilling site. Site preparation including the drill site, air-strip and ingress route construction have been completed.

oh please we already bringing back conoco who has done the pre-eliminary seismic studies and will dig other wells. Were planning for signing contracts with our second licence conoco and your still stuck in the seismic studies that wont even happen lets get real somaliland doesnt do anything right other then hotels!!! wheres the cablebroadband?

Sxb meesha ka seexo waxas oo kale kuma ficno somaliland administration just build hotels thats what ur good for not infrastructure markas baad ceebowda

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

^^^Then post that shit in the puntland section, nobody here cares.