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Page added on March 26, 2012
Kenya discovers oil
Kenya announced on Monday its first oil discovery, saying it was found in the northern part of the country where British Tullow Oil Plc has been conducting exploratory drilling.
The announcement sent the company’s shares higher.
Kenya and its neighbours in east Africa have become an international hot spot for oil and gas exploration after commercial oil deposits were found in Uganda and natural gas in Tanzania and Mozambique.
President Mwai Kibaki said in a statement read on live television that Tullow had established oil at more than 20 meters deep, and would drill more wells in the area to ascertain the commercial viability of the find.
“This is the first time Kenya has made such a discovery and it is very good news,” Kibaki said. “It is however the beginning of a long journey to make our country an oil producer, which typically takes in excess of 3 years.”
Tullow said in a statement issued in London it had been drilling the Ngamia-1 well on block 10BB, in the Lokichar basin which is part of the East African Rift System in Turkana County.
Shares in the company were up 2.5 percent after it said it had found oil in Kenya.
Tullow Oil operates Kenya’s block 10BB with a 50 percent working interest and Canada’s Africa Oil Corp., which holds the remaining stake.
The company said the Ngamia structure was the first prospect to be tested as part of a multi-well drilling campaign in Kenya and Ethiopia.
“Many leads and prospects similar to Ngamia have been identified and following this discovery the outlook for further success has been significantly improved,” the company said.
Tullow has confirmed 1.1 billion barrels of oil in Uganda and believes there are 1.4 billion left to find.
Tullow discovered oil in Uganda to the west of the country, along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 2006.
9 Comments on "Kenya discovers oil"
BillT on Mon, 26th Mar 2012 1:54 pm
Kibaki will skim off most of the profit to foreign bank accounts and leave the country when it is convenient…like all other ‘leaders’ in oil countries. This could be a good thing for the people, but odds are, they will never see any real gain from it.
Arthur on Mon, 26th Mar 2012 2:49 pm
I hope that Kenya is a democracy for it’s own sake. Otherwise people might be tempted to bring it.
BillT on Mon, 26th Mar 2012 2:55 pm
Arthur, it is a Republic with an elected President, and similar to most Western Democracies. But, then, that never stopped the Empire from wanting to install it’s own form of ‘democracy’.
Abuero on Mon, 26th Mar 2012 3:48 pm
We thank God and pray at the same time that the oil will not be a curse to Kenya.Norway has got oil that it manages sooo well and why not Kenya?
BillT on Tue, 27th Mar 2012 1:08 am
Abuero, Norway was never a colony. The West considers Africa as a huge resource warehouse for their own use. Once that was slaves, now it is oil and minerals and land. Nothing has changed.
Ken on Tue, 27th Mar 2012 9:54 am
Just to let you know that kenya is the greatest democracy in Africa.just read news lately from kenya and you will know what am talking about
bonnny on Thu, 29th Mar 2012 11:40 am
to discover oil is the most precious thing any country dreams of,but there are some people who intimidates the nation and its citizens,the world must be so vigilant to the such so called leaders,like Kenya there’s a lot of mineral potential but out of 100%we hear of 20%,eg in western there’s a group of foreigners who are mining gold that is in high deposits mostly the division of ikolomani in kakamega district.i urge the world to please intervene and let the region benefit from their blessed minerals
Daniel B. chatama on Wed, 4th Apr 2012 7:50 pm
From the day I could read world affairs, petroleum has been the major source of fuel running the machines of war all over the world. There is no stable oil rich country in the world except Russia. An oil rich country without army to protect is equal to setting oneself afire. We saw what happened to Saddam Hussein who nationalized his country’s oil and destributed oil revenues by creating an infrastructure from which everyone in the country benefited and Qaddafi who made it a law of the land that everyone got a check in the mail every month apart from the best social services in place for everyone hat paid by oil revenues. The irony of this oil finding in Kenya was by the same country that is still benefiting it over forty years after independence. In short, it is a curse for Kenya as it for most countries with oil in the world except Russia that can defend its national resources against any imperialist rat.
Daniel B. chatama on Wed, 4th Apr 2012 8:04 pm
From the day I could read world affairs, petroleum has been the major source of fuel running the machines of war all over the world. There is no stable oil rich country in the world except Russia. An oil rich country without army to protect is equal to setting oneself afire. We saw what happened to Saddam Hussein who nationalized his country’s oil and destributed oil revenues by creating an infrastructure from which everyone in the country benefited and Qaddafi who made it a law of the land that everyone got a check in the mail every month apart from the best social services paid by oil revenues. The irony of this oil finding in Kenya is that the company making the exploration belongs to the same country, Britain that had colonized it and is benefiting from it as a Neo-colonial master for over forty years after independence. In short, it is a curse for Kenya as it for most countries to have petroleum when they have no army to defend it. Of all the countries in the world with vast reserves of petroleum, it is only Russia that can defend its national resources against any imperialist rats.