High expectations as hunt for oil begins

The Kenyan Government faces the challenge of managing community expectations as a Chinese firm begins exploratory drilling for oil in Isiolo North district.

China National Offshore Oil Corporation will on Wednesday begin drilling Bogal-1-1 well in block 9 near Merti in Isiolo North. The drilling project, estimated to cost US$26 million, will take five months.

It will be the second major attempt in recent years to find oil after an Australian company, Woodside Energy, sank Sh5 billion into a three-kilometre deep well off the Lamu coast that ended up dry. The Chinese firm will drill the Bogal-1-1 well to a depth of five kilometres.

Slow down

It is feared there will be expensive demands by communities living in the area where drilling will take place. According to Lands Surveyor Ibrahim Mwathane, community expectations and land use issues are bound to increase as Kenya steps up the search for commercial oil and gas.

But according to Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi, the government, through National Oil Corporation of Kenya (NOCK), has been engaging residents of Isiolo North District ahead of the drilling.

He said NOCK has been holding discussions with the community to explain the operation. Mr Mwathane said land use and environment issues will come into sharp focus as the community and local authorities try to maximise any benefits arising from successful oil and gas exploration.

“Under the current laws of Kenya, the government retains ownership rights to any land under which lies mineral wealth, a factor that could easily be misunderstood and contested by many people,” the former chairman of Institution of Surveyors of Kenya said.

An individual can own land to six feet underground, according to the law that stipulates that anything below six feet is government property. According to Prescient360 Group, a consulting firm, Kenya’s quest to attract investment in oil and gas exploration has to be supported by shielding prospecting firms from high demands from local communities.

Resource conflicts are not new to Africa. They have occurred in Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Liberia over exploitation of minerals. Several years ago the local community in Lamu on the Indian Ocean demanded that baseline strategic environmental assessment studies be conducted before Woodside Energy could drill an offshore exploratory well.

Mr Mwathane said the local community in Lamu had reason to be worried because oil exploration and production activities have a direct bearing on land and its use.

He said that under current laws, the government retains ownership rights to any land under which lies mineral wealth, and the question of compensation has always been contentious.