Oil could be the least of Genel Energy’s problems. If the explorer fronted by Tony Hayward finds as much of the black stuff as it expects to, it may find itself in the middle of several territorial disputes in one of the world’s most volatile regions.
Next year Genel will drill its first wells in Somaliland, the breakaway East African territory that declaredindependence from Somalia more than 20 years ago after a bloody civil war.
The prize could be huge. At 40,000 sq km, its acreage in the nation is bigger than the whole of the Kurdish region.
