One Month of EOPS Crude Oil Already Stored in Lokichar – Source

Days ahead of the much anticipated trucking of crude oil to the Kenya Petroleum Refineries in Changamwe Mombasa OilNews Kenya can now reveal that over 75,000 barrels are in storage as per the April tank dippings’.

According to the source the crude oil in storage include approximately 38,450 barrels from the Ngamia field and approximately 35830 barrels from the Amosing field bringing the total to approximately 75,280 barrels available for transportation.

As per the volumes to be trucked daily this means that the crude oil in storage can sustain the early oil pilot scheme (EOPS) programme for 37 days with EOPS production of 2,000 bopd expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2017 as per Tullow Oil April update.

This revelation could provide the first clear picture of Tullow Oil’s activities in Turkana since 2012 as well as the EOPS programme with various conflicting figures been provided by both government and the joint venture partners.

“Note that the volume does change as the tanks are filled with flow from wells as well as water and or gas breakouts,” the source cautions indicating that the figures could change.

Tullow Oil has also said that Ngamia-11 well will be used for an extended water flood pilot test in conjunction with the Early Oil Pilot Scheme (EOPS) following successful water injection testing on the Amosing-2A, Amosing-3, and Ngamia-5 wells which achieving good water injection rates and proving the feasibility of water injection for the development of these fields.

“This success has enabled the Ngamia-11 water flood pilot to be incorporated into the EOPS activities which, along with the dynamic data collected from previous tests, will be used to finalise reservoir characteristics for the Field Development Plan.”

Already three logistics companies have been contracted be involved in the EOPS programme with Prime Fuels leasing out insulated containers/tanktainers each having a minimum fluid capacity of 25,000 litres while Multiple Hauliers and Oilfield Movers will transport the crude oil to Mombasa starting June.

In the meantime the government has promised to sensitize the community on the pilot scheme after the Turkana Empowerment Advocacy Group threatening to mobilize the residents to disrupt the trucking of oil out of Turkana until negotiations on how revenue is to be shared, job allocation and infrastructure deals are finalised.

Energy principal secretary Andrew Kamau told OilNews Kenya that consultations were planned this week to iron all underlying issues.

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