Ankara (Somalia Today) – Türkiye will begin offshore drilling off Somalia by the end of April, opening a new phase in its energy partnership with Mogadishu as Ankara sends a deep-sea drillship abroad for the first time.
The operation will centre on the newly acquired seventh-generation drillship Çağrı Bey, which is due to begin drilling at the Curad-1 well in Somali waters.
At the vessel’s departure ceremony in the southern port of Taşucu in February, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar called the mission “a historic moment” and said the ship was expected to reach Somalia after a voyage of about 45 days.
He added that three Turkish warships would escort the vessel, underlining both the strategic importance Ankara attaches to the mission and the security risks of operating off the Horn of Africa.
The well lies in areas previously surveyed by the Turkish seismic research ship Oruç Reis, which began work off Somalia in October 2024 under an energy agreement signed in March 2024.
The deal covered the exploration, evaluation, development, and production of oil and gas in Somalia’s land and sea blocks, and followed a defence accord signed a month earlier.
Under the energy agreement, Turkish Petroleum obtained licences for three offshore areas, laying the groundwork for the current drilling phase.
According to Türkiye’s energy ministry, Oruç Reis completed its Somali mission in June 2025 after 234 days at sea.
The vessel carried out three-dimensional seismic surveys across three offshore blocks covering 4,464 square kilometres, producing subsurface data that will now guide the Curad-1 test well.
In frontier exploration, seismic studies help identify promising geological structures, but only drilling can determine whether oil or gas is present in commercially viable quantities.
Strategic partnership
For Somalia, the drilling campaign represents one of the boldest efforts in years to tap offshore resources that have long remained undeveloped due to insecurity, weak infrastructure, and limited investment.
The country’s offshore potential has been discussed for decades, but conflict and state collapse after 1991 prevented sustained exploration.
The Turkish-Somali deal, followed by the arrival of Oruç Reis and now Çağrı Bey, has given Mogadishu its clearest opportunity in years to test whether those offshore prospects can be turned into production.
The drilling mission also reflects a broader strategic relationship between Ankara and Mogadishu that has deepened steadily over the past decade.
Türkiye has built roads, hospitals, and schools in Somalia, provides scholarships for Somali students, and, in 2017, opened its largest overseas military base in Mogadishu, where it trains Somali security forces.
Drive for energy
The defence and energy agreements have reinforced Türkiye’s position as one of Somalia’s most influential outside partners.
For Ankara, the Somali mission forms part of a wider effort to cut dependence on imported energy and turn its domestic offshore build-up into an outward-facing energy policy.
Bayraktar has set a target of producing 500,000 barrels per day of oil or equivalent hydrocarbons by 2028, with the government hoping to double that through overseas output and production-sharing arrangements.
Türkiye still imports more than 90 percent of its energy needs, making new production a strategic priority.
Until now, Türkiye’s drilling strategy has focused mainly on the Black Sea, where the Sakarya gas field remains the centrepiece of domestic production plans.
Production at Sakarya has reached about 9.5 million cubic metres per day, while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a further 75 billion cubic metre gas discovery in the Black Sea.
The government has presented those findings as central to reducing the country’s import bill and strengthening energy security.
Expanding fleet
To support that strategy, Ankara has expanded its state-controlled offshore fleet.
Turkish officials say the addition of two new drillships, Yıldırım and Çağrı Bey, raised the total number of deep-sea drilling vessels in Türkiye’s fleet to six and pushed the country into fourth place globally in combined drillship and seismic vessel capacity.
Alongside those ships, Türkiye operates seismic vessels including Oruç Reis and Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa, giving it a broader offshore reach than it had only a few years ago.
The Somali mission stands out not only because it is Türkiye’s first overseas deployment of a drillship, but also because it links energy exploration to a broader foreign-policy push in the Horn of Africa.
If the Curad-1 well proves commercially promising, it could open the door to a much wider offshore campaign and deepen Türkiye’s economic and strategic foothold in East Africa.
Even if it does not, the operation will still mark a symbolic milestone: the first time Ankara has sent one of its flagship deep-sea drilling vessels beyond its own maritime zone, and the clearest sign yet that its energy ambitions now extend well beyond the Black Sea.
