Companies

Tullow seeks contractors for Lokichar crude oil exports

RIG

A Tullow oil rig in Elgeyo Marakwet County: The firm is seeking transporters of crude from its Turkana County base. PHOTO | FILE

British exploration firm Tullow Oil has invited contractors to tender for petroleum transportation services ahead of Kenya’s plans to start small-scale production of crude oil next year.

Tullow has invited firms to bid for trucking services for the crude oil, which is to be ferried to Mombasa by road in insulated containers.

“Following completion of some of its various explorations across its licenses in Kenya, the company is embarking on an Early Oil Pilot Scheme (EOPS) and wishes to engage experienced Kenyan registered companies for the provision of crude oil transportation by road and provision of insulated tanktainers,” said Tullow in a public notice.

Africa Oil and partner Tullow Oil, which first struck oil in Lokichar in Turkana in 2012, had in the recent past projected they could next year start small-scale production of crude, transported by road and rail to Mombasa.

Tullow said on Friday the crude oil transportation by road entails trucking of crude oil insulated containers known as tanktainers to be provided by successful firms from an early production facility located near Lokichar in Turkana County to storage facilities at the Kenya Petroleum Refineries in Changamwe, Mombasa.

The plan to provide the insulated tanktainers, it added, will involve leasing of 100 insulated containers with minimum fluid capacity of 25,000 litres to be used to transport the crude oil from Lokichar to Mombasa.

The move is expected to see Kenya inch closer to being an oil exporting nation.

READ: Tullow raises Kenya’s oil export hopes with March 2017 production date

Tullow raised Kenya’s hopes of becoming an oil exporting country in August after it officially announced the plans to start producing oil from Turkana in March next year.

The UK firm’s chief operating officer Paul McDade told President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House Nairobi then that it will initially produce 2,000 barrels of crude oil per day and have stocks ready for export in June 2017.

The announcement is in line with State House’s plan to have the oil transported by road from Turkana to Eldoret for onward delivery by train to the port of Mombasa — a distance of 1,089 kilometres.

Tullow’s count of the Turkana oil reserves so far stands at 750 million barrels — which is considered commercially viable at the current prices of $50 (Sh5,050) a barrel. One barrel is equivalent to 159 litres.