Oil from Turkana will soon be exported to other countries after the oil explorer, Tullow signed an agreement with the Kenyan Government on Tuesday.

The signing of the agreement means that the explorer will now transport the first catch of crude oil to Mombasa where it will be prepared and then exported.

According to Tullow, about 2000 barrels of crude oil are expected to be produced daily from the oil fields in Turkana. The oil was to be transported via railway but the Standard Gauge Railway is yet to be complete and, therefore, the transport will be done by road.

The Kenya Petroleum Refinery in Mombasa has not been working for some time now meaning that Kenya cannot even refine her own crude oil. The country has been importing finished petroleum goods, a move that has often pushed up the prices of the commodities.

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The Turkana Oil has been described by explorers as unique in that it is less in Sulphur hence more preferable by refineries than others and it is known to have higher prices across the markets. According to the Ministry of Energy, the country expects to extract between 2,000 and 4,000 barrels of crude on daily which will in turn be transported to Mombasa.

Tullow said that the Turkana oil fields will last for the next 25 years even as the government plans to start large scale crude-oil production in the year 2020. The government is also in the process of constructing an oil pipeline from Turkana to the port of Lamu at the cost of 210 billion shillings.

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The oil issue in Turkana County has led to the two levels of government; County Government of Turkana under Governor Josephat Nanok and the National Government to clash over the sharing of the benefits that will be found from the sale of the fuel. The clash almost went out of proportion when President Uhuru Kenyatta engaged in a tongue-lashing war of words with a section of leaders from the region.