HORN PETROLEUM COMMENCES DRILLING IN PUNTLAND

[tightrope]

Horn Petroleum Corporation

TSX VENTURE : HRN



January 16, 2012 16:30 ET

Horn Petroleum Commences Drilling in Puntland, Somalia

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Jan. 16, 2012) - Horn Petroleum Corporation (TSX VENTURE:HRN) ("Horn Petroleum" or the "Corporation") is pleased to announce the spudding of the Shabeel-1 well on the Dharoor Block in Puntland, Somalia and is currently preparing to drill ahead to a total planned maximum depth of 3800 meters. Drilling operations have also commenced on the Shabeel North-1 well with the setting of the 30 inch surface casing and the drilling of a 50 meter pilot hole. Please see attached photos.

To see the photos associated with this press release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/hrn116i.pdf.

The Sakson 501 rig will be used to drill both wells which are expected to take approximately 90 days each for drilling and evaluation. These two wells satisfy the first exploration period minimum work obligations of the Production Sharing Contracts for both the Dharoor and Nugaal Blocks. They are the first oil exploration wells to be drilled in over 20 years in the country.

The Shabeel and Shabeel North prospects are located on a Jurassic aged rift system which is part of the same system that has proven to be highly productive in the Masila and Shabwa Basins in Yemen that contain an estimated 6 billion barrels of oil*. Both prospects are very large fault block prospects with internal most likely estimates of potential oil volumes of over 300 million barrels of recoverable oil. Source rocks are expected to be rich Jurassic Kimmeridgian shales in the deep portion of the rift immediately down dip from the Shabeel prospects. Reservoirs are expected to be sandstones and carbonates of the Lower Cretaceous and Jurassic systems analogous to Yemen.

Horn President and CEO, David Grellman, commented, "The commencement of drilling in the Dharoor Valley block is a major milestone in the evaluation of the oil potential of Northern Somalia. We have had very strong support from the Puntland regional government and the local communities who are all keen to see development resume in the region after prolonged periods of internal strife. These wells are the first to be drilled into the deep areas of the rift basins and will be key to unlocking the hydrocarbon potential of this unexplored prospective trend."

Horn Petroleum Corporation is a Canadian oil and gas company with assets in Puntland, Somalia. The Corporation holds a 60% interest and operatorship in the Dharoor and Nugaal blocks encompassing a Jurassic Rift Basin on trend and analogous to the large oil fields in Yemen. The Corporation's shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "HRN".

* Sourced from country and industry websites - not NI 51-101 compliant.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

David Grellman, President and CEO

FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "will", "expected" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward looking information and are based on the Company's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. Various assumptions or factors are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking information. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to the Company. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and the Company is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein.


Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contact Information

Horn Petroleum Corporation
Sophia Shane
Corporate Development
(604) 689-7842
(604) 689-4250 (FAX)
hornpetroleum@namdo.com
http://www.hornpetroleum.com

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release ... 607129.htm

[tightrope]

SAME ARTICLE ON MSNBC, MAJOR AMERICAN NEWS OUTLET
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46016165

[tightrope]

17 January 2012 Last updated at 11:54 ET
Somalia oil exploration: Drilling begins in Puntland


The region of Somalia where the wells are being drilled may have reserves of up to 4bn barrels of oil

Oil exploration has begun in the arid north-east of Somalia, which has been wracked by civil war for two decades.

The Canadian firm Africa Oil behind the project said its two wells are the first to be drilled there in 21 years.

The semi-autonomous Puntland region where the drilling is taking place says it is an opportunity for peace.

"It's a new beginning - if oil is found it will change Somalia for the better," Issa Farah head of Puntland's Petroleum and Minerals Agency told the BBC.

Speaking on the BBC's Focus on Africa programme, he said it was an important development not only for Puntland, but the whole of Somalia, which has not had a functioning central government since 1991 and has been convulsed by fighting between militias.

"I think in 10 years' time - if oil is found, we will see a better country, a stronger country that lives in peace and prosperity with its own neighbours and hopefully that produces what we have been all looking for - peace, prosperity, development and progress," he said.

In the area where the two wells are being drilled to a depth of 3,800m (about two miles), there is an assumption that "there will be about 3bn to 4bn barrels of oil", he said.



Nigeria, which is Africa's biggest oil producer, is estimated by the International Energy Agency to hold 37bn barrels of reserve oil.

According to Africa Oil, whose firm Horn Petroleum Corporation is operating the project, the drilling of each well will take about three months.

"These wells are the first to be drilled into the deep areas of the rift basins and will be key to unlocking the hydrocarbon potential of this unexplored prospective trend," David Grellman, head of Horn Petroleum Corporation, said in a statement.

Mr Farah said that Puntland would not allow this "historic project" - involving three oil firms - to be a curse, as oil has proved in some other African countries.

"Before any barrel of oil comes out will have a policy that will benefit our own people and will not be detrimental to us," he said.

"We want this to be something that can improve our lives, not take us back into the dark ages."

Puntland is relatively stable compared with other parts of Somalia, but many of the pirates who function off the country's coast are based in the region.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16600649

[tightrope]

Canada's Africa Oil spuds oil well in Somalia
Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:07am EST

* Eyes recoverable reserves of 300 mln barrels

* Drilling to take 90 days

* Somali has no proven reserves.

By Abdiqani Hassan

DHAROOR, Somalia, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Canadian oil and gas exploration company Africa Oil Corp. began drilling an exploratory well in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region on Tuesday, the first to be sunk in the country since civil war erupted two decades ago.

While there has been speculation about finding oil in the anarchic Horn of Africa country for decades, it has no proven hydrocarbon reserves. The prospect of oil beneath Dharoor's sandy, arid plains has excited officials of the impoverished region.

"Soon Puntland will be out of hunger and shall stop asking assistance from the international community. We shall never beg, we shall be begged if the fuel comes out," Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamud Farole said at the spudding ceremony.

"This fuel well is not only for Puntland. It will benefit all Somalis if Somalia becomes one with a common constitution," Farole said, while laying a foundation stone.

Somalia, mired in conflict since warlords in the early 1990s and then Islamist militants reduced the government to impotence, represents one of the final frontiers in Africa to be explored.

Africa Oil and its partners in the two Puntland licences, Australia's Red Emperor and Range Resources, target prospective resources of over 300 million barrels of recoverable oil.

Horn Petroleum, a newly created oil explorer focused on Puntland, is drilling the Shabeel-1 and Shabeel North-1 wells within the Dharoor Valley block. Africa Oil has a 51 percent stake in Horn Petroleum.

"The drilling of Shabeel-1 fuel well is not a one-day decision; it came after much effort and agreement with Puntland," David Grellman, Horn Petroleum's president and CEO, said.

Dozens of workers buzzed around the site under the gaze of heavily armed Puntland troops. Shabeel-1 was spudded on Tuesday, and drilling operations have also started at Shabeel North-1.

The drilling in the Dharoor valley is a milestone in evaluating Somalia's oil potential, Grellman said, adding that the drilling would last 90 days.

The site is a humid, barren area of about 2,600 sq km (1,004 sq miles) near Dharoor town, some 350 km (217 miles) from the port of Bosasso on the Gulf of Aden.

The Shabeel-1 and Shabeel North-1 prospects are located on a Jurassic aged rift system, which is part of the same system that has proven to be highly productive in Yemen.

Puntland's government signed a production-sharing deal in January 2007.

Puntland faced stiff opposition from the Western-backed interim government at the time, part of which refused to honour a 2005 deal reached with Australian independent Range Resources, giving it exclusive rights over all minerals and petroleum.

Relations between Mogadishu and the Puntland authorities are on the mend. A new U.N.-backed roadmap targets a new federal constitution that brings the semi-autonomous regions into a closer relationship with central government.

Africa Oil said last year it planned to drill up to eight wells in blocks it holds interests in across east Africa, including the two in Puntland. (Writing by Abdi Sheikh; Editing by Richard Lough and Jane Baird)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/ ... 5720120117

[tightrope]

First oil well drilled in war-ravaged Somalia for 20 years



(AFP) – 8 hours ago

MOGADISHU — Drilling has begun on the first oil well in war-torn Somalia in 20 years, as Canada's Horn Petroleum Corp. broke ground on an exploratory site in the breakaway region of Puntland, officials said Tuesday.

In a statement received Tuesday, the company said it is "pleased to announce the spudding of the Shabeel-1 well on the Dharoor Block in Puntland, Somalia... operations have also commenced on the Shabeel North-1 well."

Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole in a ceremony Monday said the well drilling was "a big day for the people of Puntland and Somalia in general."

"We will be no longer begging people for resources after the drilling of the oil wells," he said.

"Our young educated men and women will not suffer unemployment, everyone including ordinary labourers will have their opportunity."

Security was tight at the site, with hundreds of heavily armed troops deployed to protect the petroleum operations, officials said.

The United Nations says Somalia is the world's worst humanitarian crisis, while regional armies and the Western-backed government are fighting Al-Qaeda linked insurgents in the south. However, security is better in northern regions.

Horn, a unit of Africa Oil Inc. has a 60 percent stake in -- and is operator on -- the Dharoor and Nugaal blocks in semi-autonomous Puntland.

The other partners on the Dharoor block are Range Resources Ltd. and Red Emperor Resources NL, both of Australia, each with a 20 percent interest.

"Somalia, and in particular Puntland, remain one of the last under-explored countries that have high potential for vast reserves of hydrocarbons," Range Resources said in a statement.

The company said Somalia was divided up in the late 1980s into a number of oil exploration concessions, but that exploration ceased with the start of the still-raging civil war in 1991.

It noted a World Bank coordinated study aimed at encouraging private investment in the oil potential of eight African nations put Somalia and Sudan, at the time still a unified nation, at the top of the list of potential commercial oil producers.

Africa Oil is a Vancouver, BC-based hydrocarbons exploration company that also has interests in exploration licenses in Kenya, Ethiopia and Mali.

Red Emperor Resources has interests in Georgia as well as in Puntland.

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... 357c4e.461

[AhmedBoqor]

Its finally getting mainstream attention

[tightrope]

Somalia’s northern region of Puntland begins drilling for oil
By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, January 17, 5:23 AM

NAIROBI, Kenya — Africa Oil says it has begun drilling for oil in Somalia’s semiautonomous northern region of Puntland.

A Tuesday statement says the company is drilling a well in the Dharor Valley and will shortly begin drilling another one in the Nugal Valley, both in south-central Puntland. The statement says the two regions are part of a geological system that has already produced oil in Yemen.

It should take about three months to complete the two wells.

The statement says the two wells are the first wells to be drilled in 20 years in war-ravaged Somalia, which has not had a stable government for 21 years.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ ... story.html