SOMALIA: SHELL CLINGS FIRMLY TO ITS PETROLEUM CONCESSIONS

The Indian Ocean Newsletter March 01, 2013 Shell`s permit in Somalia has lain idle for decades because of “force majeure” but the company clearly prizes the acreage. Executives of the Anglo-Dutch firm Shell Exploration & Production aren`t about to let go of a concession covering five blocks that the group acquired in Somalia in November, 1988 but which has remained idle under force majeure ever since. On Feb. 25, Tjalling Wiersma and Ayca Arisoy, who serve respectively as the legal and financial chiefs of Shell EP Somalia BV sent a warning letter to the American firm Liberty Petroleum Corporation (LPC). They claimed Liberty had acquired an oil prospecting license from the regional government of Galmudug which is headed out of the capital, Galkayo, by a former war lord, Abdi Hassan Awale Qeybdiid. In the letter, a copy of which has been obtained by the Indian Ocean Newsletter, Shell warned the American company that its “offshore block covers a part of blocks held by Shell” and on which Shell claims exclusive rights. The letter specified that all activity in the area “would constitute a clear violation of Shell`s exclusive rights.” Based in Phoenix, Arizona, Liberty Petroleum Corporation was founded in 1997 by Trent and Lane Franks. The latter took over the company when his brother Trent won a seat in the House of Representatives on a Conservative Party ticket. In addition to Lane Franks, LPC`s directors are Abdul Al Tawash, Saud Al Tawash, Travis Franks and Jonas Robertson. Another firm is also seeking oil licenses from the Galmudug government, namely Britain`s LGE Monsoon whose representative travelled to Mogadishu at the end of 2012.