Tullow Oil seeks to bring on board more partners as strategic investors to actualize the dream of Project Oil Kenya after previous partners Total Energies and Africa Oil announced their withdrawal from the project in May
“Tullow is 100 per cent committed to Project Oil Kenya. We are engaged in detailed discussions with a number of parties to come in as strategic partners.” Rahul Dhir Tullow Oil Plc Chief Executive Officer said.
Accompanied by Tullow Kenya BV Managing Director Madhan Srinivasan when they met National Oil Corporation of Kenya (NOC) Chairman Kiraitu Murungi and CEO Leparan Morintat, Dhir hailed the support of the new administration and Turkana county government.
“We are delighted, not just to be in Kenya, but also in the field, where we were given a warm welcome by all county and community leadership. We have seen a lot of traction and movement since the new government came in.” Dhir said, adding, “We had very good engagements with the Ministry and the Turkana county government leadership and we are also very encouraged by the support the project enjoys in the community.”
In March, Tullow submitted the revised field development plan to Energy Regulatory and Petroleum Authority (EPRA), which is now being reviewed.
Kiraitu noted that with the state’s carry-in interest of 22.5 per cent share in the production sharing contract, NOC stands to earn approximately US$8 billion at the current rate of US$80 a barrel, an amount that will be enough to cut dependency on foreign aid and lift millions of Kenyans out of poverty.
“Experts tell us that the Lokichar field asset is quantified at 462 million barrels of 2C recoverable resources.” Kiraitu said. “The benefits the country stands to receive in jobs, royalties and infrastructural development is a lot more.”
While Kenya is endowed with considerable green energy resources, Kiraitu said, the country needs the financial inflow that solar or wind power cannot bring in.
Alluding to how Ghana used its oil find to power its economy, the chairman expressed optimism that Kenya could leverage oil production to provide a financial cushion for the country.
On his part, Morintat said Project Oil Kenya is the single most lucrative investment at the moment, adding that the sooner it is developed, the better for the country. He assured that NOC will support Tullow and the Government to move faster to the production phase.
“NOC has considerable capacity which we shall deploy to help develop our country. We host one of the few globally recognized petroleum data centers in developing economies and we are in the process of equipping our geophysical and petrochemical laboratory which will be the only one of its kind in Africa,” he said.
