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Friday, August 21, 2015
Soma Oil & Gas revealed in a statement that it has wrote to Rafael Dario Ramirez Carreno, Chair of the United Nations Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 751 and 1907 concerning Somalia and Eritrea, on August 17, 2015 to request a meeting to discuss the allegations contained in the leaked confidential report by the United Nations Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group.
In the letter, Soma Oil & Gas expressed concerns about the Monitoring Group’s fundamental misunderstanding of the oil and gas industry and in particular, the Capacity Building Agreements (the CBA). These CBAs have been alluded to as something of a bribe by certain parties, which in its letter, Soma vehemently denies.
The company maintains it is cooperating fully with the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which has been investigating an allegation that has been made against it in regards to the CBA. This allegation is widely reported by the media to have stemmed from the Monitoring Group which in its most recently leaked report incorrectly claims that payments to the government of Somalia by Soma were “improper, unlawful and give rise to a conflict of interest.”
The company has published the full letter to Carreno on its website.
Robert Sheppard, CEO of Soma said, “Soma Oil & Gas looks forward to the opportunity to meet with Rafael Dario Ramirez Carreno, to make clear the necessity for and positive impact of our Capacity Building Arrangement with the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and to ascertain how our substantial investment and demonstrated commitment to the Federal Republic of Somalia can be further leveraged, through collaboration with the UN, to maximize the positive social and economic impact of Soma Oil & Gas’s work in-country.
“It is disappointing the Monitoring Group chose to leak its draft report which includes a recommendation for an oil moratorium in the country while its own investigation, as it states, remains incomplete and is in our view, inaccurate. Furthermore, as a group mandated with reporting on security issues in the country, it is concerning that it would leak a report to the media which discloses the names of Ministry employees that may now be subject to targeting by militant, anti-government insurgents.
“The timing of this leak also coincides with what should have been a transformational period for the country’s oil and gas sector and the company’s history, as we had completed the first phase of our exploration program and were transitioning to the serious business of developing the offshore oil and gas resource of Somalia. These achievements lie in stark contrast to the continued criticism imposed on the company and the SOA by the Monitoring Group from the very first day it was signed.
“It is difficult for me to understand how delaying this process benefits the people of Somalia and furthers peace and stability in the region.”
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