Kenya will start exporting oil on commercial scale in the next five years, Africa-focused oil and natural gas producer Tullow Oil said on Wednesday.
Tullow said extended well tests, water injection tests, well interference tests and water-flood trials have proved helpful for planning the development of the oil fields.
“The exploration and appraisal campaign in Kenya has confirmed the presence of substantial oil resources in the South Lokichar Basin.
After over six years of hard work, we can now move forward to commercialising these low cost resources through a phased development of the basin involving a central processing facility and an export pipeline to the Kenyan coast,” said Mark MacFarlane, Executive Vice President for East Africa.
“In 2018, we will focus on taking the project towards Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2019 with a prudent and flexible plan of execution that can take advantage of low oil services costs and deliver first oil and cash flow as soon as possible.
“ With good progress being made in Uganda towards FID, East Africa is on the verge of becoming a major oil exporting region.”
