Controversial Somalia oil deal gets green light

Somalia has finalised a controversial $7m (£6.2m) oil-production-sharing deal with the US firm Coastline Exploration, after several amendments to the original agreement.

The Horn of Africa nation says the deal covers seven oil blocs and it will now proceed with an exploration program.

“The federal government will do all it can to support this project and we want the first exploration well to start as soon as possible,” President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has said in a statement.

Coastline will drill an exploration well and hopes to find multiple offshore oilfields.

The deal with Coastline created a political firestorm in February when it was denounced as illegal by the previous Somali president and prime minister.

At the time Villa Somalia, the presidential palace in Mogadishu, declared the agreement null and void, citing a presidential decree that barred government agencies from entering into international contracts during the election period.

By BBC