{"id":2222,"date":"2013-12-03T09:05:14","date_gmt":"2013-12-03T09:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oilnewskenya.wordpress.com\/?p=12"},"modified":"2013-12-03T09:05:14","modified_gmt":"2013-12-03T09:05:14","slug":"tullows-kenya-prospects-get-even-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/tullows-kenya-prospects-get-even-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Tullow\u2019s Kenya prospects get even better"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tullow\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Report by Nick Young<\/i><\/p>\n

Tullow Oil plc\u00a0announced a fifth oil discovery\u00a0in Kenya\u2019s Lokichar Basin last week, less than a month after\u00a0protests against an influx of outside workers in the area\u00a0forced the company to suspend its drilling operations there.<\/p>\n

Having reached a deal with Kenyan government and local leaders, Tullow resumed drilling and its Agete-1 well promptly struck oil \u201cwith an estimated 100 metres of net oil pay in good quality sandstone reservoirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new find highlights \u201cemerging world class exploration and production potential\u201d in northern Kenya according to Angus McCoss, Tullow\u2019s Exploration Director.<\/p>\n

Investment analysts quoted in financial media say it now seems likely that the Lokichar Basin\u00a0contains at least 500 million barrels of oil.<\/p>\n

This is only one of the rift basins that Tullow and other oil companies are licenced to explore in Kenya.<\/p>\n

Tullow is also drilling in Ethiopia\u2019s South Omo region, just north of the border with Kenya\u2019s Lake Turkana.<\/p>\n

The scale and progress of these operations make it increasingly probable that Kenya, and perhaps Ethiopia, will join Uganda as an East African onshore oil producer.<\/p>\n

A quarterly\u00a0operations update\u00a0from Africa Oil, which has a 50% share in the Kenyan Blocks 10BB and 13T where Tullow is drilling, notes confidently that the companies may work with the government on a \u201c\u2018start-up phase\u2019 oil production system with potential to deliver significant production rates with oil export via road or rail in advance of a full-scale pipeline development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ugandans fearing that Kenya will overtake Uganda in a \u2018race for oil\u2019 may, however, take comfort from a report that Tullow recently published,\u00a0Creating Shared Prosperity in Uganda.<\/p>\n

Tullow\u2019s General Manager in Uganda, Jimmy Mugerwa, there states that \u201cUganda\u2019s stage of industry development is more mature than that of Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. \u00a0Uganda\u2019s time has come, and it currently has a first mover advantage to compete for the investment and technical expertise that will be required to develop the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mugerwa warns, however that the Government of Uganda \u201cwill need to act decisively and efficiently in order to maintain that advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

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