The UK-registered oil and gas exploration company focused on Somalia
Soma Oil & Gas has written a letter to Rafael Dario Ramirez Carreno,
Chair of the United Nations Security Council Committee requesting a
meeting to discuss the allegations contained in the leaked confidential
report by the United Nations Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (the
Monitoring Group).
The letter written pursuant to resolutions 751 and 1907 concerning
Somalia and Eritrea, on the 17th August 2015 has Soma Oil & Gas
expressing concern about the Monitoring Group’s fundamental
misunderstanding of the oil and gas industry and in particular, the Capacity Building Agreements.
According to Soma Oil & Gas CEO Robert Sheppard the company is
disappointed with the Monitoring Group on how it chose to leak its draft
report which includes a recommendation for an oil moratorium in the
country with its own investigation remaining incomplete.
“Soma Oil & Gas is looking forward to the opportunity to meet
with Mr Rafael Dario Ramirez Carreno, to make clear the necessity for
and positive impact of our Capacity Building Arrangement with the
Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and to ascertain how our
substantial investment and demonstrated commitment to the Federal
Republic of Somalia can be further leveraged, through collaboration with
the UN, to maximise the positive social and economic impact of Soma Oil
& Gas’s work in-country,” he says.
Sheppard adds as a group mandated with reporting on security issues
in the country, it is concerning that it would leak a report to the
media which discloses the names of Ministry employees who may now be
subject to targeting by militant, anti-government insurgents.
“The timing of this leak also coincides with what should have been a
transformational period for the country’s oil and gas sector and the
Company’s history, as we had completed the first phase of our
Exploration Programme and were transitioning to the serious business of
developing the offshore oil and gas resource of Somalia,” a statement by
the company continues.
Soma Oil and Gas adds that its achievements lie in stark contrast to
the continued criticism imposed on the Company and the SOA by the
Monitoring Group from the very first day it was signed.
“It is difficult for me to understand how delaying this process
benefits the people of Somalia and furthers peace and stability in the
region,” Sheppard concludes.
United Kindgom’s Serious Fraud Office has already opened a criminal
investigation into SOMA Oil & Gas Holdings Ltd, SOMA Oil & Gas
Exploration Limited, SOMA Management Limited and others in relation to
allegations of corruption in Somalia.
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