Turkish Petroleum is preparing to drill a high-impact ultra-deepwater exploration well offshore Somalia, marking the country’s first wildcat drilling campaign in more than four decades.

The company’s drillship, Cagri Bey, has arrived in Somali waters and is expected to begin operations within days, according to industry sources familiar with the plan. The campaign is being closely watched across the energy sector as it represents a rare frontier test in a basin that has seen little to no modern offshore drilling activity.

Turkey’s Energy Minister, Alparslan Bayraktar, publicly marked the vessel’s departure from Tasucu Port in March, underscoring Ankara’s strategic backing for the mission and its growing interest in overseas upstream ventures.

Somalia’s offshore acreage is widely regarded by geoscientists as underexplored despite geological similarities to productive basins along the East African margin. Political instability and security risks had long kept international oil companies away, leaving much of the country’s offshore potential untested since sporadic exploration efforts in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The upcoming well is classified as a true wildcat, targeting a structure in ultra-deepwater with no nearby production history to guide expectations. As a result, the operation carries both high geological risk and potentially significant reward if commercial hydrocarbons are discovered.

For Turkey, the campaign signals an expansion of its energy diplomacy beyond domestic and regional projects in the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean into frontier African territory. For Somalia, it could mark the beginning of renewed offshore exploration activity after decades of dormancy.

Industry analysts say success at the well could trigger broader interest from other explorers and accelerate licensing activity in Somali waters, while a dry result would still provide valuable geological data in a basin that remains largely a mystery to modern explorers.