Cape Town—Somalia, which has been wracked by civil war for two decades, is hoping to join East Africa’s oil boom by launching its first hydrocarbon licensing round early next year targeting mainly offshore blocks, the ministry of petroleum’s petroleum secretary, Jamal Kassim Mursal, said this week. Speaking to delegates at the Africa Oil Week in Cape Town, Mursal said shallow water block concessions signed in 1988 with Shell and ExxonMobil are excluded from the bid round. To launch the round, the ministry has amended details in its production sharing agreement with the assistance of the World Bank, and is now looking for input from companies and stakeholders, Mursal said. It is also finalizing its legal and regulatory framework for the natural resources industries and on how revenue is shared among regional governments.
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