Mogadishu (Somalia Today) – Turkey’s deep-sea drillship Cagri Bey is due to arrive in Somalia on Friday to launch the country’s first offshore drilling operation, a step officials say could reshape Somalia’s economic outlook.
Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced the imminent arrival at an event in Trabzon on Saturday, saying he would travel to Mogadishu within days.
“With the Cagri Bey, we will begin the first offshore drilling in Somalia,” Bayraktar said, adding that a successful hydrocarbon discovery would make “a major contribution” to Somalia, East Africa, and Turkey.
Somalia’s state minister for foreign affairs, Ali Omar, echoed that optimism on Sunday.
He described the drilling campaign as economically and geopolitically significant, saying it could unlock resource-led growth for Somalia while reinforcing Turkey’s standing as a trusted partner.
Months in the making
The Cagri Bey left the southern Turkish port of Tasucu in February on what Ankara described as its first deep-water drilling operation outside Turkish waters.
The vessel will target the Curad-1 well, about 370 kilometres (230 miles) from Mogadishu, at a total depth of 7,500 metres.
The drilling phase follows an earlier Turkish survey mission.
Turkey dispatched the seismic vessel Oruc Reis to Somali waters in October 2024, and it completed its mission in June 2025 after collecting data across three offshore blocks, helping identify the subsea structures that the Cagri Bey will now test.
A 2024 intergovernmental oil and gas cooperation deal underpins the operation, along with production-sharing and exploration agreements.
For Ankara, the Somalia venture forms part of a broader effort to cut dependence on imported energy and expand state-backed exploration abroad.
Turkey has expanded its offshore energy fleet in recent years, stepping up drilling in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
Its most notable success came in 2020, when the Fatih drillship discovered a large natural gas reserve at the Sakarya field in the Black Sea, which was hailed as the largest in Turkish history.
That domestic success encouraged Ankara to push abroad, making the Somali coast its first overseas deep-water drilling mission.
Economic horizon
For Somalia, the drillship’s arrival marks the most concrete step yet to revive a hydrocarbon sector weakened by decades of civil war and political instability.
“If successful, it could strengthen Somalia’s prospects for resource-led growth while also reinforcing Türkiye’s role as a trusted long-term partner in the country’s development,” Ali Omar, the state minister for foreign affairs, said in a statement.
He said it was a moment that could reshape Somalia’s economic horizon and regional energy dynamics.
Successive Somali governments have maintained that the country’s vast coastline holds commercially viable offshore reserves, but insecurity and a lack of infrastructure have repeatedly slowed progress.
In recent years, Mogadishu has moved to rebuild its legal framework, passing a comprehensive petroleum law and signing exploration pacts to attract foreign capital.
While Somalia still does not produce oil, the prospect of joining East Africa’s energy map has sustained investor interest.
Major oil and gas discoveries in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique have already drawn attention to the region’s frontier basins.
Somali officials argue that a viable energy sector could generate jobs, state revenue, and foreign investment for a nation still recovering from prolonged conflict.
Strategic ties
The drilling campaign also underlines the depth of the Turkey-Somalia relationship.
Since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s landmark visit to Mogadishu in 2011, Ankara has become one of Somalia’s most visible allies.
Turkey has invested heavily in the country, building infrastructure, funding scholarships, delivering humanitarian aid, and training Somali security forces.
In 2017, Ankara opened its largest overseas military base in Mogadishu, cementing its strategic foothold.
That cooperation deepened in early 2024 with a defence and economic agreement, under which Turkey pledged to support Somalia’s maritime security.
The energy partnership comes amid heightened competition for influence in the Horn of Africa, where foreign powers are seeking access to vital maritime routes.
Somalia’s strategic coastline lies along one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors, carrying a significant share of global trade towards the Suez Canal.
Turkey has also used its presence to play a regional diplomatic role, including efforts to ease tensions between Somalia and Ethiopia over Addis Ababa’s port deal with the breakaway region of Somaliland.
Against that backdrop, the arrival of the Cagri Bey represents more than an oil hunt.
It is a test of whether Somalia can finally move from surveys to actual drilling, and whether Turkey can turn its security presence into a durable energy partnership.
Whether the Curad-1 well yields a commercial discovery remains to be seen.
But even before the drill bit turns, the operation marks a milestone: Somalia’s first physical attempt to tap its offshore potential, and Turkey’s first overseas deep-water drilling mission.
