Prospects that there could be oil in Kenya have seen investors troop in to put millions of dollars in drilling wells in search for “black gold”. Various multinationals have set camp in the country and some drilling has already begun in the northern and Southeastern parts of the country to try and establish oil deposits. The deepest well to be sunk in Kenya was done by Chinese cooperation CNOOC at just about KM.
Afren Plc-a London based independent oil & gas company, becomes the latest firm to join the list of foreign investors in search of oil in the country. Other firms that have already earned exploration rights include; Tullow Oil ,Apache, Africa Oil, CNOOC, Ophir, BG Group Plc (BG/),Dominion Petroleum Ltd. (DPL) among others.AfrenPlc plans to spend between sh4.1 and sh4.9 billion out of the a total sh41.4 billion set out to finance its global portfolio this year on exploration activities in Kenya. The company intends to drill one exploration well targeting the Coast by the second half of this year.
According to National Oil Company-which is mandated by the Government of Kenya to monitor the oil exploration process under the Ministry of Energy, the limitations of risk capital from government is the reason as to why some exploration activities such as well drilling have been left mostly to international oil companies. Smaller firms have however held onto oil blocks but due to lack of resources, not much exploration activity happened. On average, an exploratory well costs Sh7.8 billion to drill, while a production well costs many times this figure.
Shell BP is among the companies to begin oil exploration in the country where it discovered small but good qualities of oil in the Turkana region back in 1991.The areas predicted to have gas or oil in the Northern region are Isiolo and Marsabit where digging is ongoing. Lamu also houses some blocks which many investors are eying.
The country has however not struck any oil deposits yet in spite the mass investment by multinationals. It is however thought that since Kenya and Uganda-which has already discovered oil, have a similar geological structure it is possible that Kenya could be standing on oil. The two countries share the same oil-latent rocks.
“The statistic provides great cause of optimsm, and proves that there are working hydrocarbon systems in each of the key basins that are prospective for oil and gas”, pointed out Galib Virani of East African Exploration.
If these explorations bear fruit, Kenya will join list of neibouring countries that are already enjoying the free gift of nature, the “black gold”. Tanzania is already mining gas while Rwanda has discovered methane gas around Lake Kivu.
Afren Plc-a London based independent oil & gas company, becomes the latest firm to join the list of foreign investors in search of oil in the country. Other firms that have already earned exploration rights include; Tullow Oil ,Apache, Africa Oil, CNOOC, Ophir, BG Group Plc (BG/),Dominion Petroleum Ltd. (DPL) among others.AfrenPlc plans to spend between sh4.1 and sh4.9 billion out of the a total sh41.4 billion set out to finance its global portfolio this year on exploration activities in Kenya. The company intends to drill one exploration well targeting the Coast by the second half of this year.
According to National Oil Company-which is mandated by the Government of Kenya to monitor the oil exploration process under the Ministry of Energy, the limitations of risk capital from government is the reason as to why some exploration activities such as well drilling have been left mostly to international oil companies. Smaller firms have however held onto oil blocks but due to lack of resources, not much exploration activity happened. On average, an exploratory well costs Sh7.8 billion to drill, while a production well costs many times this figure.
Shell BP is among the companies to begin oil exploration in the country where it discovered small but good qualities of oil in the Turkana region back in 1991.The areas predicted to have gas or oil in the Northern region are Isiolo and Marsabit where digging is ongoing. Lamu also houses some blocks which many investors are eying.
The country has however not struck any oil deposits yet in spite the mass investment by multinationals. It is however thought that since Kenya and Uganda-which has already discovered oil, have a similar geological structure it is possible that Kenya could be standing on oil. The two countries share the same oil-latent rocks.
“The statistic provides great cause of optimsm, and proves that there are working hydrocarbon systems in each of the key basins that are prospective for oil and gas”, pointed out Galib Virani of East African Exploration.
If these explorations bear fruit, Kenya will join list of neibouring countries that are already enjoying the free gift of nature, the “black gold”. Tanzania is already mining gas while Rwanda has discovered methane gas around Lake Kivu.
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