Kenya widens focus on Lokichar oil exploration blocks

Kenya has expanded the area targeted for exploration on blocks 10BB and 13T following the recent discovery of oil in three fields within the Lake Turkana basin.

An update by the Energy and Petroleum ministry’s Petroleum Directorate said the move follows discoveries on Etuko, Ewoi and Ekunyuk prospects—making up the nine discoveries for the proposed field development plan area in the South Lokichar basin.

British firm Tullow Oil Plc in partnership with Africa Oil Corporation, have discovered about one billion barrels of crude oil in the South Lokichar basin.

Two weeks ago Tullow said an appraisal of the Kenyan discovery confirmed an estimated gross recoverable resource of 600 million barrels of oil.

“Draft Field Development Plan (FDP) submitted in December 2015 and working towards a full FDP submission by year end 2016,” Tullow further said when it released its 2015 full-year results.

Kenya is considering moving its crude oil to Mombasa by road and railway as part of an “early harvest” programme.

READ: Kenya eyes crude exports in 2017 via trucks and railway

The Energy ministry has offered Rift Valley Railways the contract to move the oil over a distance of more than 800 kilometres, from Eldoret to the Kipevu-based Kenya Petroleum Refineries  (KPR) from as early as February next year.

The choice of trucks and train is seen as a strategy to sidestep bureaucracy involved in constructing a joint pipeline with Uganda in an effort to beat its tight timelines.

“We are quite ambitious but we know we will be able to pull this off in the next 12-16-month window,” said the head of Presidential Delivery Unit Nzioka Waita.

“And as we speak, work has been done to improve the road network from Lokichar to Lodwar and from Lodwar to Kapenguria to increase the shoulder size to allow trucks which carry crude oil to convey it to Kitale and subsequently to Eldoret,” Mr Nzioka said in a presentation made during the recent Governors’ Summit in Sagana, Nyeri County.

The upgrade of the 213km-road from Lokichar to Kitale has been top of the government’s agenda as it looks to facilitate the quick transport of crude to an export terminal in Mombasa.

Kenya is keen on avoiding the long process of constructing a joint crude oil refinery under discussion with Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda.

The joint projects were supposed to be built in public-private partnership model. The plans were, however, thrown into uncertainty last October after Uganda and Tanzania signed an agreement to explore the possibility of building a crude oil pipeline between the two countries.

Although Uganda said in August it had agreed to the Kenyan route, it changed its stand and said Nairobi had to guarantee security for the pipeline.