Kenya will start exporting oil in December as part of early oil pilot scheme.
Andrew Kamau, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum, says 2,000 barrels of oil will be transported from the oil fields in the Lokichar Basin in northwest Kenya to the port of Mombasa.
“Once we have accumulated 400,000 barrels of oil which we estimate will occur in December, we will then sell it to the international oil markets via a tender process,” Kamau said.
Kenya struck oil in 2012 and has so far confirmed approximately 750 million barrels. Kenya is currently undertaking the Early Oil Pilot Scheme (EOPS) before full field oil production commences in 2021.
Kamau said that the EOPS will help Kenya become a crude oil exporter while providing valuable information on the international market for Kenyan crude. Kenya is not expected to make any profit from the sale of crude oil during the EOPS process.
“However, it (EOPS) is an important step towards full scale commercialization of the oil deposits because it will provide important technical data on the oil well performance over time,” Kamau said.
Martin Heya, Secretary of Petroleum at the Ministry of Petroleum, said that Kenya’s oil is likely to sell at a discount as the global oil markets are yet to be familiar with quality of Kenya’s oil.
The EOPS is being undertaken by the Kenyan government and the Kenya Joint Venture Partners comprising of Tullow Oil, Africa Oil and Total Oil who own the Blocks 10BB and 13T.
The discovery of hydrocarbons in Kenya as well as Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Sudan is a key reason why East Africa is fast becoming a key player in the global oil and gas scene.
Kenya has potential oil deposits covering approximately 500,000 square kilometers, yet only 23 percent of that has been surveyed
