Hargeysa, Somaliland, June 20, 2009 (SL Times) – The Somaliland Ministry of Water and Mineral Resources (Ministry) on Tuesday announced that the Country’s first bid round for hydrocarbon concessions has been extended by three months. The deadline for final submission of bids has been pushed to December 15, 2009 and concessions will be awarded on March 15, 2010.

The bid round includes eight concession blocks comprised of more than 89,624 square kilometers of onshore and offshore areas. The bid round was originally scheduled to finalize and award bids in August and December, respectively.

The geology off the coast of Somaliland is analogous to the oil-producing basins in nearby Yemen that have yielded several discoveries to date. Yemen’s Balhaf Graben Basin and Somaliland’s Berbera Basin contain striking similarities in fault trends and structural complexity. Additional indicators of hydrocarbon reserve potential are the naturally-occurring oil and gas seeps at Dagah Shabel, and most historical wells in the area contain multiple zones with shows of oil and/or gas.

In preparation for the Somaliland licensing round, TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company, ASA (TGS) acquired 5,300 kilometers of seismic, gravity and magnetic data in the offshore areas and 34,700 kilometers of high resolution aeromagnetic data covering all known petroleum basins. The surveys mark the first new geophysical data acquired in the area in almost 30 years. Data acquisition was completed in 2007-2008, and TGS used this data along with existing well logs and interpreted data to create comprehensive interpretation reports for the Ministry. The reports, as well as the newly acquired geophysical data and well logs are all multi-client products to be exclusively marketed by TGS on behalf of the Ministry.

The timing for this historic bid round is as follows:

February 19, 2009 – Bid round opens

December 15, 2009 – Final submission of bids

March 15, 2010 – Expected award of concessions

Minister of Water and Mineral Resources

Republic of Somaliland

Mr. Qasim Sh. Yusuf Ibrahim, + 252 2528766

MWNR.info@gmail.com
http://www.somalilandgov.com/

Source: Somaliland Ministry of Water and Mineral Resources
Copyright Business Wire 2009

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