Petroleum / Mining in Somalia
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BOTSWANA, 2016/05/11
Oil, gold, diamonds, palm oil, cocoa, timber: raw materials have long been linked to Africa in a lot of businesspeople’s minds. And in fact the continent is highly dependent on commodities: they constitute as much as 95% of some nations’ export revenues, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
But propping a country’s entire economy on commodities is risky business, like building a mountainside home on stilts. You can’t be sure about the weather, or in this case the commodities market. The current free-fall of oil prices to less than $40 a barrel is a glaring example. “The commodities cycle has tanked out,” says Austin Okere, founder of Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), a Nigerian emerging multinational financial services company. “And this time it looks additional structural than cyclical, so it’s not a matter of waiting it out. Something has to give.”
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SOMALIA, 2013/11/19
Private security and improved naval tactics have been central to the fall in Somali piracy, but so have changed onshore conditions and the lure of oil.
In May 2012, a group of pirates hijacked the MT Smyrni, a Greek-owned oil tanker, off the northern coast of Somalia.
By this time, the story of Somali militants boarding commercial vessels and holding ship and crew ransom had become a familiar to observers around the world, but at the same time, the dramatic decline in such events had by presently begun.
According figures from the International Maritime Bureau, there were 237 piracy-related events in 2011, the 'glory days' of Somali piracy; in 2012, this dropped rapidly to 75; and this year, as of 22 October, there have been just 11 incidents.
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SOMALIA, 2013/10/06
While Somalia's hydrocarbon development will remain vulnerable to substantial above-ground risks, a recent transaction between the government and the Soma Oil and Gas company increases chances of an uptick in upstream activity over the coming years, according to a new study.
The statement, released Friday by the Business Monitor International (BMI), said despite the abundant risks, “if Soma's surveys return favourable results, we could see a moderate uptick in investment into the country.
“This is particularly the case as exploration accelerates in neighbouring Kenya, and Uganda nears commercial production,” BMI observed in its October 2013 monthly market intelligence, trend analysis and forecasts for the oil and gas industry.
In BMI’s view, “Somalia continues to face substantial above-ground risks to developing its hydrocarbon sector, inclunding legal uncertainty, political instability, and piracy.”
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BOTSWANA, 2012/12/25
World gas request is projected to reach 3,460.7 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2013, constituting an increase of 3.6% from 3,341.4 bcm in 2012. North America's gas consumption is estimate to reach 890.3 bcm in 2013, equivalent to 25.7% of world request. It would be followed by Asia & Australia with 720.8 bcm (20.8%), Eastern Europe & the Commonwealth of Independent States with 587.4 bcm (17%), Western Europe with 533 bcm (15.4%), the Middle East with 445.7 bcm (12.9%),
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SOMALIA, 2012/12/18
Rusting hulks of capsized boats decorate the waters around Berbera, a port city in the self-declared republic of Somaliland. Further down Somalia's coast, pirates raid freighters in the Gulf of Aden.
Efforts are underway to help Somalis make better use of their 3,300km coastline - the longest on the African continent - by increasing fishing and seafood exports to lucrative markets in the Middle East and Europe.
In 2013, the European Union will spend US$6.5 million to help Somaliland pursue its long-term goal of netting 120,000 tons of seafood each year, the sale of which could generate $1.2 billion in foreign currency.
