Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced on Thursday that his country intends to explore for oil and gas in three areas off the coast of Somalia.
This came at a press conference following his attendance at the signing ceremony of an agreement between Ankara and Mogadishu in Istanbul on hydrocarbon exploration and production, with the Somali Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Abdirizak Omar Mohamed.
Minister Bayraktar explained that Türkiye has become one of the countries that owns the most important fleets of deep-sea exploration ships.
He added that Türkiye was able to discover important natural gas resources in the Black Sea thanks to its exploration ships.
He pointed out that Turkey is not only working on exploration in its territorial waters, but will also conduct exploration operations on the coasts of several countries, and that the agreement concluded with Somalia is evidence of that.
Bayraktar pointed out that the Turkish research ship Oruc Reis will head to Somalia (for exploration) with support ships at the end of next September.
For his part, the Somali Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said that the signed agreement would contribute to strengthening relations between the two countries.
