Kenya secures Sh4.4bn loan to train oil and gas workers

The government has negotiated a Sh4.4 billion loan from the World Bank to fund training of its workers to manage petroleum resources.

The training will be done under the Kenya Petroleum Technical Assistance Project, targeting officials from the ministry of Energy and Petroleum, the Treasury, the State Law Office, the National Oil Corporation of Kenya, Energy Regulatory Commission and the Kenya Pipeline Company, among other government agencies.

“We successfully concluded negotiations for the $50 million IDA credit at three consecutive meetings held at the World Bank Upper Hill offices. We are currently awaiting the decision and approval of the project by the World Bank board of executive directors during the month of August, after which the project will be fully rolled out,” said Principal Secretary in the ministry of Energy and Petroleum, Mr Joseph Njoroge, on Friday.

The workers will be trained on formulation and drafting of comprehensive petroleum policy, geotechnical data acquisition, processing and interpretation, oil revenue administration, income saving mechanisms, as well as local skills’ development to fill existing gaps.

The programme will also focus on development of a communications strategy to create awareness for managing expectations and formulation of a structure for relaying information on petroleum business.

With the project, Kenya is hoping to avert the oil resource management challenges that have been evident in a number of African countries, leading to conflicts, noted Mr Njoroge.

At the moment, government records show that oil reserves discovered in the northern part of the country so far are in excess of 600 million barrels, which industry insiders say meets the minimum threshold for commercial exploitation.

The Energy ministry has set a target of 2018 to start production and has already advertised for consultancy services to oversee construction of a crude oil pipeline between Hoima in Uganda through Lokichar in Turkana to the proposed port in Lamu.

UPDATE LAWS

While Kenya has emerged as a frontier in oil and gas exploration, going by the discoveries made so far, the government is yet to update laws to guide the management of the resource.

The current Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act, for instance, has been in use since 1984 and does not provide a formula for sharing revenue from sale of oil or gas between the national government, counties and local communities. It also fails to provide contractual terms for exploration of natural gas.