Industry

Nock seeks to guide national dialogue on oil, gas production

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Sumayya Hassan-Athmani, CEO National Oil Corporation of Kenya. Photo/FILE

The National Oil Corporation of Kenya (Nock) said Tuesday that it has kicked off nationwide awareness meetings on the future of oil and gas exploration and production in the country.

Nock chief executive Sumayya Hassan-Athmani said the State-owned firm is looking at guiding national dialogue on the recent oil and gas discoveries beyond the current discussions revolving around revenue sharing.

Hassan-Athmani said that a series of stakeholder talks being held across the country will prepare the nation for success once the ongoing exploration for commercial oil deposits in the northeast Kenya is confirmed.

READ: Kenya inches closer to viable oil output with Turkana well

"The talks intend to inform policy making and the creation of institutional structures needed for effective management of the emerging petroleum upstream sector."

Kenya and the entire East African region has witnessed intensified exploratory activity since 2003, which led to the discoveries of oil and gas in Uganda and Tanzania respectively. There is also ongoing exploration in Ethiopia.

Officials said the discovery of the commercial quantities of oil in Turkana, one of the underdeveloped areas, should also ignite new investments in the economy of the county. Many leads and prospects similar to Ngamia 1 have been identified, and following the discovery the outlook for further success has significantly improved.

READ: New oil tests boost chances of striking commercial deposits

The meetings to be held every two months will focus on important areas relevant to the identified audience, said Hassan-Athmani, adding that keynote speakers during the forums will be petroleum experts drawn from Kenya, the region and the world.

She said the experts will discuss topics such as petroleum revenue management, development of institutional and governance structures for a robust national oil industry, value addition across the petroleum supply chain and local content development.

"The development of SMEs in oil and gas exploration and production will be particularly important to the Kenyan economy going forward considering that currently, SMEs contribute close to 80 per cent of employment opportunities in the country and account for over 20 per cent of GDP," she said.

During the inaugural forum held on May 14, stakeholders from a cross-section of institutions were given an overview of the oil and gas exploration and production in Kenya and the region including the discoveries of natural gas in Tanzania and Mozambique, and oil in Uganda.