Cagri Bay can drill to 12,000 meters depth, targeting Curad-1 well at 7,500 meters offshore Somalia.
Turkey’s 10-year defense agreement commits naval protection for exploration across Somalia’s one-million-square-kilometer exclusive economic zone.
Somalia holds estimated 30 billion barrels of oil reserves with only two wells drilled offshore to date.
Turkey is leveraging military partnerships to unlock East Africa’s frontier hydrocarbon basins, deploying advanced drilling technology to a region where security infrastructure and energy exploration have become strategically inseparable.
The move positions Somalia within the same geological corridor that has yielded world-class gas discoveries in Tanzania and Mozambique, potentially extending the East African gas export chain northward.
Turkey’s seventh generation deep-drilling vessel Cagri Bay departed for Somalia on February 15, representing Ankara’s first overseas deepwater oil and gas exploration campaign and signaling renewed momentum in East Africa’s frontier basins. The South Korean-built drillship embarked on a 45-day journey to Mogadishu, where it will conduct full-scale drilling operations across three offshore blocks under a bilateral energy agreement signed in 2024.
The deployment follows seismic surveys completed by Turkey’s Oruç Reis research vessel, which mapped over 4,000 km² of Somali waters between October 2024 and mid-2025. According to Turkey’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar, drilling at the Curad-1 well, located 370 kilometers offshore Mogadishu at a depth of 7,500 meters, is expected to begin in April following the completion of infrastructure and security preparations.
Security Partnership Underpins Energy Ambitions
The drilling campaign operates within the framework of the Defense and Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement signed between Turkey and Somalia in February 2024. The 10-year pact, ratified by Somalia’s parliament in a 213-3 vote, commits Turkey to building, training and equipping the Somali navy while providing comprehensive maritime security across Somalia’s 3,898-kilometer coastline and one-million-square-kilometer exclusive economic zone.
Three Turkish naval vessels are accompanying Cagri Bay on its journey around the Cape of Good Hope, providing the security apparatus necessary for deepwater exploration in a region historically affected by piracy and maritime instability. For Turkey, the arrangement provides exclusive exploration and production rights in three offshore blocks while positioning the Mediterranean nation as a key player in Red Sea and Horn of Africa geopolitics.
Turkey’s Expanding African Energy Footprint
The Somalia deployment is the latest extension of Turkey’s growing energy presence across Africa. Turkey’s state-owned TPAO secured exploration blocks in Libya’s February 2026 licensing round as part of a consortium with Spain’s Repsol and Hungary’s MOL, marking Tripoli’s first competitive bid round since 2007. The partnership includes onshore acreage in the Murzuq Basin and offshore Mediterranean blocks, building on a June 2025 offshore exploration memorandum of understanding between Libya and TPAO.
Turkey has also expanded its North African gas infrastructure presence, with plans to deploy floating storage and regasification units to Egypt to support Cairo’s LNG import capacity. The diversified approach, spanning upstream exploration, midstream infrastructure and energy security partnerships, positions Turkey as a strategic energy partner across multiple African markets while advancing the government’s objective of reducing dependence on Russian and Middle Eastern energy imports.
Seventh-generation ultra-deepwater vessel marks Turkey’s first overseas drilling operation, backed by 10-year defense pact securing maritime exploration zone.
Advanced Drilling Capabilities and Regional Integration Potential
Cagri Bay represents cutting-edge drilling technology purpose-built for Somalia’s underexplored deepwater basins. The vessel, approximately 228 meters long and 42 meters wide, can drill to depths up to 12,000 meters below the seabed.
Somalia’s offshore basins share geological heritage with Tanzania and Mozambique, where giant gas discoveries sourced from Jurassic-age marine shales have positioned East Africa as an emerging LNG export hub. If Turkey’s drilling campaign confirms commercial gas discoveries offshore Somalia, it could integrate the country into the same regional gas corridor, potentially linking Somali resources with the liquefied natural gas export infrastructure developing further south and opening access to Asian and European markets.
Somalia remains one of Africa’s most underexplored hydrocarbon markets, with only two wells drilled offshore to date despite estimates of up to 30 billion barrels of oil reserves. Beyond Turkey, Liberty Petroleum secured production sharing agreements for Blocks 131, 190 and 206 in early 2024, while Coastline Exploration signed seven production sharing contracts in late 2023.
As East African offshore activity accelerates, Somalia’s entry into active drilling alongside regional developments positions the country as a key frontier opportunity for upstream investors targeting high-impact discoveries in untested deepwater basins.