Fresh drilling lifts hope of striking oil in Kenya

• The drilling, in August, will be carried out by the Chinese company CNOOC which has been prospecting for oil in Kenya’s arid north.
• Should commercial quantities be found, it could take at least another five years before the oil can flow into the pipelines.
• In the past 18 months, 14 exploration licenses have been awarded to 11 international companies – compared to only five in the past 48 years.

Optimism is high that Kenya will strike oil in the north this year, oil industry experts said on Friday.

Senior officials familiar with the latest data from the exploration fields in Marsabit and Isiolo could not hide increasing hopes that the first on-shore drilling since 1991 will yield commercial quantities of the “black gold”. (Isiolo and Marsabit districts are in the northern part of Kenya's Eastern Province)

The drilling, in August, will be carried out by the Chinese company CNOOC which has been prospecting for oil in Kenya’s arid north.

Good news

“CNOOC is doing very well and it may just have the good news the country has been waiting for,” said the Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Energy, Mr Patrick Nyoike, on the sidelines of a regional oil conference in Mombasa on Friday.

“We know they are doing very well,” he added, in reference to the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

Mr Nyoike’s optimism echoed studies presented at a three-day conference on East Africa’s petroleum potential in Mombasa.

One study said the prospective area, Block 9, in Marsabit has “the potential” for substantial oil deposits. However, the experts are cautious not to excite the country ahead of the drilling.

“We consider it a significant find but we cannot discuss the commercial viability,” said a state official referring to the latest development. “Don’t quote me now.”

Geophysicist Danson Mburu said “the country has huge potential for oil, both on land and in the sea,” adding voice to numerous expert presentations at the talks.

Mr Mburu, a consultant for Vangold Company in Kenya and Rwanda, said “oil is there” in Tarbaj, an area in Mandera, northern Kenya. His presentation and that of Mr James Phillips of Africa Oil Corp highlighted parts of the country that have potential of “billions” of barrels of oil and/or gas – Mandera, Marsabit, Turkana.

Mr Neil Taylor of East African Exploration said the Mandera area had “proven rocks but unproven output owing to limited sampling”. Although scantily explored, the work already done here shows trappings of oil, he said.

Mr Mburu’s work showed that a 81,000 sq km area between Marsabit and the Kenya Somalia border could have as much as 1.8 billion barrels of oil in one section (Kenya consumes 80,000 barrels a day).

The last drilling by Shell BP stumbled on small quantities of good-quality low sulphur oil in Loperot area, Turkana in 1991.

So far, 31 exploration wells have been drilled since the exercise began 50 years ago. “We have found traces of oil and/or gas in 19 of them,” says John Omenge, chief geologist, Ministry of Energy. “Most likely we have oil in our country. Conditions for generating oil and gas are already there.”