Genel Energy has signed a farm-out agreement with OPIC Somaliland Corporation (OSC) relating to the SL10B13 block, Somaliland, with all its share of future capital investment coming from CPC Corporation, Taiwan, the state-owned enterprise of Taiwan
Under the agreement, OSC receives a 49% working interest in the block for a cash consideration of 49% of all Genel’s historic back costs, plus a cash premium.
Somaliland has significant underexplored potential, with geology analogous to Yemen. The SL10B13 block is highly prospective, with multiple stacked prospects with more than five billion barrels of prospective resources identified from the interpretation of the 2D seismic data acquisition completed in January 2018.
The field partners will now work together to plan exploration drilling in this block, with an aim of drilling a well in 2023. It is currently estimated that a well can be drilled for a gross cost of approximately US$40mn.
The agreement has been approved by the government of Somaliland.
Mike Adams, technical director of Genel, said, “Somaliland is a highly-prospective and largely unexplored region, with a compelling technical case for the drilling of a well. Oil seeps confirm a working petroleum system, and one prospect alone could target over half a billion barrels across multiple stacked reservoirs.”
“During the energy transition the hydrocarbons that should be developed are those that are low-cost, low-carbon, and deliver a material and tangible benefit to local people and the host government. Somaliland has the potential to tick all of those boxes,” Adams added.
