New Somalia co-operation agreement seeks to build capacity

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Petroleum has signed a co-operation agreement with the Somali Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources aimed at building capacity. Mubadala, part of Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Development Company, which is led by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, said the agreement was “aimed at sharing knowledge, increasing the strength of the Somali ministry and its staff”. The agreement follows a deal reached in August 2013 with UK-based Soma Oil & Gas to acquire seismic data in exchange for exploration rights “The focus of the deal is working together on information sharing and to improve the quality of the ministry staff. We are building starting from scratch, the capacity of the ministry is growing, but it needs to be properly improved,” ministry director-general Farah Abdi Hassan told African Energy.