Genel decides risk is worth it searching for oil in Somaliland

Tony Hayward, chief executive of Genel Energy, is sanguine about the risk

By Tim Webb

Finding oil could be the least of Genel Energy’s problems. If the explorer fronted by Tony Hayward finds as much of the black stuff as it expects to, it may find itself in the middle of several territorial disputes in one of the world’s most volatile regions.

Next year Genel will drill its first wells in Somaliland, the breakaway East African territory that declared independence from Somalia more than 20 years ago after a bloody civil war.

The prize could be huge. At 40,000 sq km, its acreage in the nation is biggest than the whole of the Kurdish region. 

Genel decides risk is worth it searching for oil in Somaliland: Finding oil could be the least of Genel Energy’s problems. If the explorer fronted by Tony Hayward finds as much of the black stuff as it expects to, it may find itself in the middle of several territorial disputes in one of the world’s most volatile regions.