Norwegian, UK and USA oil majors have known about Somali's oil wealth since the early 1960's. In 1980's, Mohamed Siad Barre, Somalia' head of state, broke with the Soviets and invited Western Oil companies to develop oil in the Somalia. That was perhaps a fatal mistake. Wars over oil have been the consequence even since.

The crisis-wracked Somalia has been the site of Western corporate investment for a number of years. "Big Western companies including Conoco-Phillips, Chevron, and Shell held Somali exploration concessions before the country slid into civil war in 1990.” But interest in Somalia’s oil heated up dramatically over the past twenty years.

Somalia may seem an unlikely prospect for investors seeking untapped oil and gas fields, but that could be about to change as the [oil] majors turn their gaze off the beaten track. Driven by record profits, a race with hungry Asian rivals and fears of growing energy nationalism in South America and Russia, interest in Somalia oil resources has never been higher.

The recent aggressions from Northern tribal secessionists (Somaliland) in SSC regions are all the more clear given the abundance of resources in the area: massive amounts of oil in SSC regions of Somalia.

Western oil companies found big oil reserves in SSC regions of Somalia (Hol Hol).It spent $1.2 billion finding and testing them. That oil developments triggered what is called Somali’s first civil war in 1990. Conoco was target of repeated attacks from Northern Tribal Secessionists (SNM) and suspended the project in 1989. Then China began to negotiate with Puntland leader (Abdillahi Yusuf Ahmed) in 2005 with no notable results.

In recent months, the Norwegian DNO Oil Company and clandestine oil dealers developed a close working relationship with the secessionist tribal warlord Ahmed Mohamed Siilaanyo at Hargeisa. Different western clandestine delegates has embarked on a series of initiatives designed to secure long-term oil sources from one of the planet’s most endowed regions—the Horn of Africa region.

Last week Tribal Secessionist State (Somaliland)  has signed oil and mineral development agreement with Chinese oil companies. No raw material has higher priority in Beijing at present than the securing of long term oil sources.

These oil corporate practices have fuelled conflict and had a devastating impact on human rights. Leaked Oil companies data suggests that in 2013 alone, those companies spent $75 million on ‘Other’ unexplained security expenditures – a vast infusion of cash into the Somalia conflict. 

According to independent analysts, the distribution of cash and contracts by oil companies has contributed to "the killing and displacement of thousands of local people” in communal and tribal conflicts. Clandestine Oil-companies-gave-cash-and-contracts-to-militants-and-warlords-in- Somalia’s northern tribal secessionists (Somaliland). This a crucial point and highlights how clandestine exploration licensing oil money gave northern tribal secessionists (Somaliland) the opportunity to peruse aggression options to SSC regions and therefore prolong the civil war and the misery for the people Somali people.

By: Habon Haji is a graduate student at East Africa University of SCC of Somalia 

Contact: [email protected])