Italian naval destroyer escorts merchant vessel delivering humanitarian
assistance to Somalia. Mogadishu in 2014 filed a suit accusing Kenya of
encroaching on 100,000 square km of marine territory with potential oil
and gas deposits in the Indian Ocean. PHOTO | REUTERS
The diplomatic spat between Kenya and Somalia was poised to take
a turn for the worse after leaked Somalia government documents showed
that Mogadishu had put on auction offshore oil blocks in the contested
territory off the Kenyan port of Lamu.
Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment citing sensitivity of the matter.
Principal
Secretary Michael Kamau said the Kenyan government was still digesting
the possible consequences of Somalia’s action even as he asked the
writer “to direct his questions to the source of the document.”
Diplomatic relations between Kenya and Somalia have been on the rocks since late last year when it emerged that Somalia had held an oil exploration exhibition in London where oil blocks off the Kenyan coast were put up for auction.
Diplomatic relations between Kenya and Somalia have been on the rocks since late last year when it emerged that Somalia had held an oil exploration exhibition in London where oil blocks off the Kenyan coast were put up for auction.
Kenya waded deeper into the controversy in
May with an immigration stroke that blocked Somalia’s diplomats from
attending an international conference in Nairobi.
Mogadishu
retaliated by directing all non-governmental organisation operating in
Somalia from Nairobi to relocate to the country or cease operations.
Leaked report
The Somalia government says in the leaked February report titled Offshore Somalia 2019
that the country will exploit its petroleum resources effectively to
achieve peace, stability and shared prosperity for all Somalis without
damaging the environment.
Somalia on February 7 exhibited seismic oil blocks data for potential buyers in London.
The exhibition, which was reportedly sponsored by potential explorers, attracted furore from Nairobi.
Kenya
accused Somalia of including oil blocks in the disputed 100km Indian
Ocean triangle in the exhibition, with the full knowledge that the
dispute is before the International Court of Justice.
Somalia
and the Spectrum Geo, which hosted the Somalia oil exhibition in London
and conducted a 2D offshore seismic survey dismissed Kenya’s claims
that oil blocks in the disputed territory were auctioned.
Spectrum
said no seismic data was acquired within the area currently subject to
maritime delimitation case with Kenya at the International Court of
Justice, whose ruling is expected in September.
At
stake is the loss of 26 per cent of Kenya’s Exclusive Economic Zone
(EEZ) and 85 per cent of the continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical
miles (EEZ) limit.
Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet
Secretary, Monica Juma complained in February that Somalia’s decision to
offer oil blocks for sale in the contested area had undermined the
principle of good faith and defeated the purpose of waiting for the
Court to make the final determination.
Exploration
The
report says that after January 2020, successful companies will mobilise
to offshore Somalia to commence exploration, which is initially four
years, followed by a renewal of two years and again a final renewal of
two years.
Offshore Somalia is divided into three
basins, each defined by their own individual structural regimes; Obbia
Basin in the north, the central Coriole Basin, and the southerly
Juba-Lamu Basin.
“Striking resemblance to the
astonishingly successful plays in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique
indicate that offshore Somalia is about to become the hottest
exploration prospect in East Africa,” says the report.
In
preparation for Somalia’s upcoming offshore licensing round, the
country has completed acquisition and processing of 20,185km of 2D
long-offset seismic data, following a co-operation agreement.
The programme complements 20,500km of existing seismic data that was acquired in 2014.
The
survey design, which covers water depths of 30m to 4,000m, has allowed
for seismic coverage over the shelf, slope and basin floor with dip,
strike and recording time intervals suitable for defining a range of
leads and prospects.
Suit
Somalia
in 2014 filed a suit accusing Kenya of encroaching on 100,000 square km
of marine territory with potential oil and gas deposits in the Indian
Ocean. Diplomatic negotiations over the territory had dragged on for six
years without success.
Kenya insists that the marine
boundary is determined by a parallel to the line of latitude to the east
as per the standards set by the colonial powers, which has been adopted
in the marine border between Kenya-Tanzania, Tanzania-Mozambique and
Mozambique-South Africa.
But Somalia wants the boundary
to extend to the southeast as an extension of the land border, which
would take a large swathe of what Kenya considers its EEZ.
Kenya
had in 2012 submitted an application to acquire an additional 103,000
square kilometres to delineate the outer limits of the country’s
continental shelf outside the EEZ of 200 nautical miles.
This
hit a snag because Kenya does not have a maritime border agreement with
Somalia, whereas one of the UN requirements is that countries that
share the ocean must reach an agreement on the border issue.
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