Kenya shifts gears on deep-sea oil exploration as interest peaks

The Kenyan Government is expanding the scope of oil exploration in the country by creating extra offshore oil exploration blocks off the Lamu coast.

A senior Ministry of Energy official said the ministry would soon gazette an additional seven blocks located off the Lamu coast.

This will be in addition to the about 15 offshore blocks currently in place in the Lamu region.

"We are mapping out seven new blocks in the Indian ocean off the Lamu coast," said Hudson Andambi, senior principal superintending geologist (petroleum exploration).

"Many firms have expressed interest in offshore blocks, which is why we are moving fast to delineate and gazette the new blocks."

There has been increased focus on deep-sea activities in Kenya, even though over 60 years of oil exploratory activities have not yielded commercially viable deposits.

But Kenya is still optimistic of striking oil, driven by recent oil finds in Western Uganda and natural gas in Northern Tanzania.

"There is a high likelihood that there are viable commercial deposits in Kenya, given that the country sits on the same geological province with Tanzania and Uganda," said Andambi.

"We currently have up to 13 oil companies exploring for oil in 28 blocks, of which 27 blocks have been given to foreign firms and one to the National Oil Corporation (NOCK)."

Four basins

At the moment, there are a total of 38 blocks in the country that are situated in the four basins of Lamu, Anza, Tertiary Rift and Mandera.

Different companies have drilled 32 wells in the four basins that are located in Lamu, North Eastern and Northern Kenya areas.

Andambi said a number of wells, especially in Lamu Basin and the Anza Basin, had returned promising shows of natural gas and oil, although none had so far had commercially viable deposits.

Andambi was speaking in Nairobi at a conference by Tullow Oil.

The UK-headquartered firm discovered billions of barrels in Uganda around the Lake Albert region, and is currently preparing to begin extraction.

The firm has been licenced to explore for oil in five blocks in Kenya.

Martin Mugo general manager of Tullow’s operation in Kenya said the firm would begin drilling in the first quarter of next year, beginning with one of its blocks in the Tertiary Rift Basin in Turkana.

Start drilling

The company had planned to start drilling towards end of this year but said logistical challenges – including delay in transportation of drilling equipment to the site – had caused delay.

Oil exploration in Kenya been a disappointment for firms prospecting — the most recent being China National Offshore Oil Corporation that exited Kenya 2009 after turning little to write home about even after drilling wells that were in excess of five kilometres deep in the Anza Basin in Isiolo.

Source: The Standard