Energy
From The Report: Kenya 2014
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Along with Tanzania and Uganda, Kenya is emerging as a new destination for oil and gas explorers after several hydrocarbons deposits in commercially viable quantities were found in the East Africa region. The extent of Kenya’s oil and gas reserves is still being determined and estimates vary widely, but some government projections suggest that its reserves could exceed Uganda’s expected reserves by as much as three-fold and rank the country as one of Africa’s most resource-rich nations. The country is also developing its mining sector, which currently contributes less than 1% to GDP but has significant potential to grow. Kenya is working to review and improve its regulatory environment for natural resources. An appealing regulatory environment will help to convince the industry that Kenya is serious about promoting investment in extracting its natural resources. In addition, a commitment to infrastructure development by the authorities should also help to attract the necessary funding and expertise to the country.

This chapter contains interviews with Davis Chirchir, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Energy and Petroleum; and Martin Mbogo, Country Manager, Tullow Oil.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Commercially viable discoveries lay the groundwork for the domestic oil and gas industry
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Along with Tanzania and Uganda, Kenya is emerging as a new destination for oil and gas explorers after several hydrocarbons deposits in commercially viable quantities were found in the East Africa region. A series of onshore and offshore oil and gas finds in Kenya suggest that the country has the potential to become a hydrocarbons exporter, as well as a regional energy transit hub as producers in Sudan and Uganda look for port facilities. Kenya is also developing its mining sector, which currently…

Interview

OBG talks to Davis Chirchir, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Energy and Petroleum
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Interview:Davis Chirchir How will the recent oil discoveries in Kenya affect its import bill, local reserves and export capacity? DAVIS CHIRCHIR: The recent discoveries in Kenya are certainly exciting for us in terms of improving our revenue base by developing our natural resources. The size of the first find, in March 2012, is quite substantial: 600m barrels of recoverable crude oil. Before this occurred, we had already decided to create the LAPSSET corridor to provide access to the global…

Interview

OBG talks to Martin Mbogo, Country Manager, Tullow Oil
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Interview:Martin Mbogo What can be done to make the environment for upstream activity more attractive? MARTIN MBOGO: I don’t see this as being any different than making the overall investment climate more attractive. Respecting the sanctity of contracts is crucial. In the case of natural resources, you start off with nothing and then when something comes along the interest levels and appetite go up exponentially. Extraction is a long-term business, so one of the fundamental pillars we…

Analysis

The development of a land bridge to transport oil across East Africa could transform the region
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Kenya has long carried out exploratory drilling – a total of 31 exploration wells were drilled between 1960 and February 2012 – but until recently it did not record any significant finds. This changed in March 2012, when Tullow Oil announced an oil discovery at the Ngamia-1 well in Turkana. As of July 2014, a further 16 wells had been drilled, of which 11 were discovery wells. HISTORY & CONTEXT Majors including BP and Shell were among those firms which began exploring in Kenya before independence…