Kenya will have to wait till 2024 to have its economy boosted by the Turkana oil, according to an announcement made by Tullow oil on August 20, 2019.
The British owned oil explorer, Tullow oil, dashed the hopes among Kenyans who hoped that Turkana oil would be the timely saviour at a time when they are struggling with a high inflation rate.
Tullow stated that it would require four years at the very least to reach the commercial production stage where Kenya would be in a position to earn an estimated 150 billion shillings annually from the exports it would make from crude oils.
Martin Mbogo, the managing Director Tullow Oil Kenya, noted that the firm would continue to gather market and production data with its non-commercial Early Oil Pilot Scheme to prepare for the large-scale production.
“We are going to make the Final Investment Decision next year and then we will take 36 months to complete the construction works before we start venturing into commercial production. Kenya will have added a new revenue earner bigger than even those it gets from tea exports,” Mr Mbogo said.
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Tullow had earlier announced that it would give the final go-ahead by the end of 2019 for full field development at the Turkana oilfields, with a pipeline and other export infrastructure expected to be ready by 2022.
In June, the oil exploration firm signed the Head of Terms agreement with the Kenyan government, a predecessor to the Final Investment Decision agreement.
A Chinese firm based in Beijing, ChemChina Petrochemical Limited, won the bid to buy Kenya’s crude oil with the first 200,000 barrels set to leave China in a week’s time.
The Chinese State-owned oil multinational is said to have won the bid to buy the Kenyan crude where 20 others had expressed initial interest and seven others submitted bids in February 2017.
The firms that participated in the bid for the early oil are yet been publicized despite the constitution requiring so.