Turkey's deep-sea drilling vessel Cagri Bey arrives in Somalia first offshore oil drilling

Turkish drilling ship docked at the port of Mogadishu on Friday ahead of Somalia's first offshore oil drilling project, the two countries announced.

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar called it a "historic" mission that will "open a new chapter in Turkish energy history."

A hydrocarbon development deal signed in 2024 granted Türkiye's state-owned energy company TPAO the right to explore three offshore blocks of around 5,000 square kilometers (1,900 square miles) each.

In late 2024, another Turkish vessel carried out seismic surveys in the three blocks to identify drilling sites.

The Çağrı Bey, featuring a red bow emblazoned with a white star and crescent and topped by a drilling derrick, arrived in Somali waters Thursday and docked in the capital's port Friday.

"It docked this (Friday) morning... the ship is very big, we have never seen anything like this at the port before," Abshir Yare, a port employee, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The vessel will carry out "Somalia's first-ever offshore drilling operations," the African nation's state news agency SONNA reported Thursday.

It will also conduct Türkiye's "first overseas deep-sea drilling" operations outside its own waters, Bayraktar said on the social media platform X.

"We believe that this cooperation between Türkiye and Somalia, based on mutual trust, brotherhood, and a common understanding of development, will open the door to a new and powerful era in the relations between the two countries," he noted.

Bayraktar, along with Somali President Hassan Sheikh, PM Hamza Abdi Barre, and ministers, attended a ceremony at the Mogadishu port on Friday alongside Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

Türkiye is one of Somalia's main military and economic partners, with Ankara inaugurating its largest overseas base in Mogadishu in 2017.

The drilling campaign is expected to last nearly 10 months.

The Çağrı Bey will begin drilling at a well located about 372 kilometers off the Somali coast. The well has been named "Curad," meaning the first-born child in Somali families, and is expected to become one of the world's deepest offshore wells.