Hope Ahead as Tullow Oil Discovers More Oil in Turkana

Tullow Oil has discovered more oil in South Lokichar basin in Turkana. It is said to be 75 meters of net oil found in two zones at the Emekuya-1 in Block 13T of the South Lokichar basin.

The discovery comes four months after the company discovered 25 meters of oil at Erut-1 well in the same block in January.

The discovery not only adds more recoverable resources to the explorer’s current portfolio but, along with Etom-2 and Erut-1 wells, establishes the northern triangle part of the South Lokichar Basin as an independent production hub.

With the new oil discovery in place, Kenya is set to increase oil estimates to over a billion barrels from the existing 750 million barrels of oil that have so far been discovered.

In a statement, Tullow noted that the Emekuya-1 exploratory appraisal well had made an important discovery in the northern part of the South Lokichar Basin.

“This well has proven oil charge across a significant part of the Greater Etom structure and we are very encouraged by the quality and particularly the regional extent of the reservoir,” added Tullow.

Kenya is at an advanced stage of working on an Early Oil Pilot Scheme (EOPS) to exploit five wells to produce oil, with phase one targeting production of 2,000 barrels per day ahead of Full Field Development (FFD). The oil will be transported from Turkana to Mombasa by road in insulated tank containers – expected to commence in later this month.

Over 60,000 barrels of crude are currently stored at Lokichar which will be exported after undergoing processing at Kenya Petroleum Refineries in Mombasa.

Tullow holds 50 per cent stake in the joint venture which owns the oil-rich blocks 10BB and 13T, while Canadian African Oil Corporation and business conglomerate Maersk of Denmark hold a 25 per cent stake each.