BOSSASO, Somalia Nov 22 (Garowe Online) - A team representing an Australian exploration firm was chased out of a town in Somalia where they planned to collect rock samples earlier this week, informed sources tell Garowe Online.

The team representing Range Resources, Ltd., traveled to Buru, a village approximately 60km east of the port of Bossaso, the commercial hub of Somalia's semiautonomous state of Puntland.

Range inked a controversial exploration agreement with the Puntland government in 2005, but the implementation of that deal has been hampered by local resistance and delays.

Sources in Buru village confirmed to Garowe Online that local clan fighters took up arms and prevented the Range team from collecting the samples.

One local elder said the Range team was "warned before" not to come to Buru village. But the team came anyway to collect rocks and other samples destined for scientific testing.

The Range team was routed out of town by the militias, with unconfirmed reports stating that the militias took away some of the team's equipment as they retreated back to Bossaso.

This is not the first time Range officials have faced violence from local communities. In early 2006, Range scientists protected by Puntland soldiers were attacked several times in Sanaag region by local fighters, leading to at least 10 deaths.

But this new development comes at a time Puntland President Mohamud "Adde" Muse is involved in a political feud with his minister of fisheries and marine resources, Mr. Said Mohamed Rage, who belongs to the local clan in Buru village.

The details are not fully clear yet, but the ongoing feud between President Muse and Minister Rage is rooted in a fisheries agreement the Puntland government signed in June with Yemen, according to our sources.

Meanwhile, a senior delegation from Africa Oil Corp. arrived in the capital of Puntland, Garowe, yesterday where they met with the Puntland leader and local elders.

Canada-based Africa Oil, formerly Canmex Minerals, signed a farm-in deal with Range Resources, giving Africa Oil an 80% stake in the Puntland exploration project.

The company's executives have stated that they plan to begin drilling for oil in Puntland's Nogal basin, where Garowe is located.

Many locals in Puntland wonder why the Muse administration continues to push forward its ambitious exploration project, especially in light of the situation in Las Anod where the outbreak of a major clan war is feared between Puntland and the breakaway region of Somaliland.

Source: Garowe Online