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RANGE RESOURCES: Bogor leaves, Povey moves aside; TECHNIP: New Nigerian contract

Australian minnow Range Resources and its Canadian joint venture partner Africa Oil have begun seismic operations in northern Puntland’s Dharoor valley. Range said the seismic equipment had arrived at Boosaaso port and some 2,600km of 2D vibroseis would be acquired.

Players in the breakaway state of Puntland claimed to be just over two months away from drilling a first well, which may or may not have brought oil to poverty-stricken Somalia.

As intrepid IOCs, most of them minnows, dip a toe into Ethiopia and Eritrea, and make plays to secure potential future reserves in Somalia and its autonomous territories, the Horn may yet prove to be the last productive frontier in the annals of African oil search. African Energy last issue reported from fractured Somalia’s Puntland territory. Below, Eleanor Gillespie analyses E&P prospects in Ethiopia and Eritrea, while Nadine Marroushi reports on developments in Somaliland.

One of the world’s poorest countries needs a major oil find to help kick-start its economy. In additional content for subscribers to electronic editions, African Energy looks at some economic and political issues in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and provides an update on oil exploration blocks in the fractured state of Somalia and its territories.

Its status is still unrecognised by the international community, and major IOCs who declared force majeure after the 1991 civil war still hold claims to their licences, but Somaliland’s exploration programme is attracting considerable interest from minnows, writes Nadine Marroushi.

A major challenges to the status of Somalia’s autonomous Somaliland and Puntland territories is the dispute over the Sool and eastern Sanaag regions, which are believed to be oil-rich.

Oil means everything to Puntlanders, who believe its discovery will lift the Somali region’s people out of poverty, transform the economy into a Dubai-style success story and unite all Somalis.

Since his appointment in November, the new TFG premier has been silent about his energy policies, but in the next few weeks all could be revealed with speculation that a long-awaited oil agreement between Somalia and the breakaway Puntland could be announced.

As they hurtle round the earth 16 times a day at a height of 220 miles, the astronauts of the International Space Station are, among other tasks, photographing vast, previously unknown, and very large scale geological formations capable of assisting oil geologists in their understanding of continental sedimentary basins.