Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) — Kenya has finally struck oil after decades of exploration, the country’s president announced Monday. President Mwai Kibaki called the discovery a “major breakthrough,” though it will take more than three years before the country can become an oil producer. “This is the first time Kenya has made such a discovery and it is very good news for our country,” Kibaki said at a state function in Nairobi.
British-based Tullow Oil said it established more than 20 meters (65 feet) of net oil pay, which refers to the depth of the oil reservoir.
“This is an excellent start to our major exploration campaign in the East African rift basins of Kenya and Ethiopia,” the company’s exploration director, Angus McCoss, said in a written statement. “To make a good oil discovery in our first well is beyond our expectations and bodes well for the material program ahead of us.”
The company said it plans to drill deeper and drill multiple other wells to seek more oil.
Tullow said it discovered the oil well in Turkana County, in the northwestern part of the country near Uganda, where the company is already a major player in the country’s oil fields. Kenya is the second country, after Uganda, to have discovered oil in East Africa.
Richard Leakey, a noted paleontologist and environmentalist, told CNN there could be significant benefits from the oil find.
“I have always thought there was oil there and I have encouraged the search for oil for the past 40 years because of our geological surveys,” said Leakey, who has been working in the Turkana region for four decades. “In the end, I believe there will be a significant find.”
Leakey says will take five to 10 years for the oil find to benefit Kenyans.
“The hope is that Kenya won’t squander the money before it has made anything,” he said. Kenya must now safeguard against oil spills and environmental pollution, he said, and make sure local people benefit. Tullow has more than 90 production and exploration licenses in 22 countries in Africa, Europe, South America and Asia. National Oil Corp. of Kenya has been directing the search of oil in the country since its began operating in 1984, according to its website.
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This discovery will further propell Kenyas thirst for being a major economic hurb in East and Central Africa
CURSED BE THE PEOPLE OF KENYA :NOW WAR HAS TO BE FOUGHT BECOUSE OF OIL!
TURKANAS MUST START MILITARY TRAINING HENCE THIS OIL WILL GO TO (GEMA) RULING CLASS:
I BELIEVE KENYA AND THE REST OF AFRICA NEED TO LISTEN, PAY ATTENTION, AND TAKE A STAND!
Oh my God save the Turkana People !
Lattés hope the money wel be use to build the most important institutions for any democratic society like health, education and civil society, and develop the region around turkana where the oil is found not more roads and tall buildings around Nairobi and Mombasa.
We thank God. but i hope we are not going to be like nigeria,sudan etc and kill each other. One question remain un answered where do the hungry turkan people get the guns from if they cannt afford to put meal on there table.Hope the one who discovered it is not responcible for the riffles.
Minister’s firm sold Turkana oil block for Sh800m
By JAINDI KISERO jkisero@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Tuesday, March 27 2012 at 22:30
A company associated with a Cabinet minister sold the block, where oil was found in Turkana, for a fortune.
In 2010, Turkana Drilling Company, associated with the Cabinet minister who was affected in Monday’s reshuffle, sold Block 10BB for $10 million (Sh840 million) to Africa Oil.
Turkana Drilling’s case is just an example of how small firms might be using influence in government to make hundreds of millions of shillings by trading in oil prospecting licences.
The whole business of acquiring blocks has been invaded by influence peddlers and well-connected middlemen, including Cabinet ministers.
More sensational is the manner in which licence holders have been making millions of shillings selling the licences to third parties.
The way the game is played is all too familiar: as a well-connected speculator, the first thing you will do is make sure that the obligations in the licence are as minimal as possible and that the terms will not require you to spend too much money.
With the licence in your hands, you make sure that you are in a position to influence government officials to vary the terms as many times as possible as you wait for the opportunity to “flip”, that is sell, the licence at a handsome profit.
Big money has been made selling these licences and trading rights to third parties. A Canadian company made Sh5 billion in this way.
The Toronto Exchange-listed Centric Corporation of Canada was given a licence for Block 10BA, adjacent to Ngamia 1, where Tullow has struck oil, in January 2010 and paid the government $615,000 (Sh52 million) mainly in training fees and signing bonuses.
Centric had outmanoeuvred bigger names, including Tullow — who had expressed interest in the same block.
With a solid track record, having made discoveries in neighbouring Uganda, Tullow was forced to lobby the Office of the Prime Minister, lamenting that it had applied for the block long before the Canadian company.
In February 2011, just over one year after acquiring Block 10BA, Centric Corporation sold its shares to another Toronto Stock Exchange company, Africa Oil Corporation, for a cool $60 million (Sh5 billion).
Block 10BA, which was the only major asset in Centric’s books, had effectively been transferred to a third party, allowing the Canadian shareholders to make profits on a prime national asset without having done any work.
Two years ago, Platform Resources, another Toronto Stock Exchange listed company, controlled by Canadian Michael Lee, sold two licences in circumstances not too dissimilar to the case of Centric and Africa Oil.
Platform Resources enjoyed the patronage of a local consultant with friends in high places.
The company owned the licences for Block 12A and 13T in the Lake Turkana basin, having signed production sharing agreements in September 2008.
Three years later, and despite having done no substantial work, the company and its local sponsors applied to the Ministry of Energy to allow them to sell the blocks to Africa Oil.
Initially, the ministry rejected the application on the grounds that Platform had not provided the bank guarantees to secure the negotiated work programme for the initial exploration period.
“Given that there is very little to show in terms of work done, your request will not be granted,” Energy permanent secretary Patrick Nyoike wrote to Mr Lee.
But a few months later, the company was allowed to sell the licence at an estimated $6 million.
The ministry has started cracking the whip on small-time explorers it blames for hoarding exploration acreages for speculative purposes.
For instance, it has threatened to cancel the exploration licence for Lion Petroleum Corporation Ltd of Canada, which owns two prime exploration blocks-namely, Block 1 (50 per cent) and Block 2B (100 per cent) in the Mandera basin, North Eastern Province.
With the Tullow oil discovery, debate is bound to rage on the manner and transparency of the system of granting exploration licences.
According to the Constitution, exploration and mining licences can only be granted with the approval of Parliament. But the regulations to effect this requirement are yet to be put in place.
With the discovery in Turkana, a rush for oil exploration blocks in Kenya is now expected.
Nearly all licences for potential onshore blocks have been given out and the competition will now shift to Lamu County where new oil blocks have been surveyed and demarcated.
The seven blocks — L21 to 28 — will be up for grabs immediately they are gazetted by the Ministry of Energy.
How does one get a block? The responsibility of giving out blocks lies with an inter-ministerial committee known as the National Advisory Fossil Fuel Committee.
It comprises representatives from the ministries of the Environment, Energy, Finance, the National Oil Corporation of Kenya and geologists. Bidders are evaluated for financial and technical capability and experience in exploration.
Apart from paying a token signing bonus and a training levy, the cost of acquiring an exploration block is not high.
But the licence comes with strict obligations on the investment to be made within the tenure of the agreement.
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Two (2) Gibbons found dead in a septic tank for their foolishness and lack of Commonsense>Cleaners suffocate to death in school septic tank
Updated 57 min(s) ago
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Laundry trader cleans her way to elite clubBy Antony Gitonga
Two people who were cleaning a septic tank using a generator died of suffocation.
The men had been hired by Eburru Secondary School in Naivasha town to remove muddy water in the 210,000 litre tank.
According to Naivasha OCPD Ernest Oponyo, teachers only came to learn about the incident later.
The head teacher learnt of the incident when he realised they had taken longer than usual to clean the tank.
He said he found the two lying beside each other and the generator still on, adding that efforts to retrieve the bodies were hampered by thick smoke.
“It seems they were deprived off oxygen. We have taken the bodies to the mortuary,” he said.
And in another incident, a man was killed by a speeding trailer at Suswa along the Mai Mahiu-Narok highway.
Oponyo said the granny was trying to cross the road when the incident happened.
“We arrested the driver who will be charged with careless driving and not observing due diligence while driving,” he said.
The body was taken to the Naivasha District Hospital mortuary as investigations into the incident continue.
At least 70 drivers were arrested by traffic police officers in the ongoing operation along the Naivasha-Nakuru highway.
He said majority of the culprits were private vehicle drivers, who were exceeding their speed limit on the highway.
In the operation led by area traffic boss, Chief Inspector Roy Njeru, those arrested were speeding contrary to traffic rules.
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Universities in Kenya has turned a Raping &kill haven>Women students are Raped and strangled and their stark naked bodies hidden under the bed>http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2012/03/neighbour-admits-raping-killing-21yr-old-girl/
Turkana Should forget (THE OIL) Oil belongs to Kikuyu Ruling-Class-Mafia !
Let us just wait for the fully oil exploits and you will prove me right!
Unless the People of Turkana wakes -Up and smel the Oil ,they are doomed!
Tz da mst briliant mov.gvt shud tek heed early enaf.GOD bles kenya
We support MRC….when families like Kenyatta and Criticos families own entire counties, with natives as squatters, what do you expect them to do?? Kenya cannot use arms to fight secessionists because they are protected by international law…South Sudanese, Kosovo and Timor are examples. MRC should play victim, not the aggressor. Kenyan mandarins who have stolen and opressed people should be taught a lesson.
Infact,
1. Turkana sio kenya
2. Pokot sio Kenya
3. Marsabit sio Kenya
4. Nyanza sio Kenya
5. R. Valley sio Kenya
6. Pwani sio Kenya
7. Western sio Kenya
8. Garissa and wajir sio Kenya