By:Oilprice

Kenya hopes it will begin commercial crude oil production and exports next year, Opiyo Wandayi, Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum, said on Monday, as companies are finalizing an asset sale and development project plans for an onshore resource basin.

The East African country has oil and gas resources, but development has stalled after UK-listed Tullow Oil failed to secure investor partners for a major oil project that has been years in the making.

Tullow Oil and its minority partners sought to develop the South Lokichar project for years. However, French supermajor TotalEnergies and London-listed Africa Oil decided two years ago to withdraw from the project in Kenya, leaving Tullow Oil the sole owner of the blocks and further complicating Kenya’s oil dream.

Plans have been made for the development of the oil fields discovered in the South–Lokichar Basin in Kenya’s north. The partners had sought to secure financing for a pipeline to ship the crude out of the landlocked northern region.

Earlier this year, Tullow Oil plc said it had signed a heads of terms agreement with Gulf Energy Ltd to sell all its working interests in Kenya for at least $120 million.

Currently, Gulf Energy is finalizing the acquisition of Tullow Oil’s assets, while the Field Development Plan (FDP) for the South Lokichar basin is pending approval, Kenyan media reported on Monday.

The project is expected to produce between 60,000 and 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) initially, with an estimated 560 million barrels recoverable over 25 years.

This could position Kenya as a player in the global oil market, Wandayi said today.

The cabinet secretary said in March that Kenya expects to launch an oil and gas exploration round for 10 blocks in September.

The Kenyan government has renewed its efforts to launch an oil and gas industry and is offering tax incentives, among other incentives.