Fellers,
You seem to know a bit about where the oil is and such. So I hope you don't mind my asking. From your posts I get the impression that outside of Nugaal there isn't much oil. So would I be right in saying that most of the oil in in other parts of Somalia, and not Puntland?
Range is leading us to believe they are sitting on an oil bonanza, but if most of the oil is actually in other areas, say, somaliland then I think Range may have lost a little credibilty here.
From Range's website, they've emphasised this part :
No one doubts that there is oil in Somalia. The only question: How much?
"It's there. There's no doubt there's oil there," said Thomas E. O'Connor, the
principal petroleum engineer for the World Bank, who headed an in-depth, threeyear
study of oil prospects in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia's northern coast.
"You don't know until you study a lot further just how much is there," O'Connor said. "But
it has commercial potential."
O'Connor, a professional geologist, based his conclusion on the findings of some of the
world's top petroleum geologists. In 1991 World Bank-coordinated study, intended to
encourage private investment in the petroleum potential of eight African nations, the
geologists put Somalia and Sudan at the top of the list of prospective commercial
oil producers.
Presenting their results during a three-day conference
http://www.rangeresources.com.au/docs/News%20Article%206%20October%202005.pdf
Also, would you guys know what happened to a team of Chinese oil explorers who were prospecting for oil in Puntland a few years back? (i think 2002) I see a few articles about them arriving to prospect for oil, but it doesn't what happened afterwards.
Thanks