Six years after its first oil explorations, Kenya has signed its first deal for 200 000 barrels of oil which will nett a revenue of US$12 million.
“We are now an oil exporter,” said Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta. His government signed oil deals with, amongst others, the London-based Tullow for the development of a 60 000 to 80 000 barrels per day crude oil processing facility for oil discovered in the country’s north west region.
Tullow Oil has exploration and oilfields in Turkana and said on its website it had a strong track record of discovering “significant oil resources” in East Africa. The group first started exploring in Uganda in 2006, successfully opening the Lake Albert Rift Basin which has discovered resources of some 1.7 billion barrels of oil.
Since 2012, Tullow’s successful exploration and appraisal drilling campaigns in Kenya have resulted in the opening of a second new tertiary rift play in the South Lokichar Basin.