Kenya: Tullow Hopeful Of Getting Strategic Partner For Turkana Oil Project

Africa-focused oil and gas firm, Tullow Oil Plc., has expressed optimism that it will soon find a strategic partner for the Turkana oil project in Kenya and bring it to fruition.

Since May this year when TotalEnergies and Africa Oil announced their withdrawal from the project, Tullow has been in search of new partners by holding talks with investors in India to bring them on board.

CEO of Tullow Oil Plc., Rahul Dhir, was in Kenya and held meetings with Kenyan authorities over the project.

“We are very delighted not just to be in Kenya but also at the field, where we were given a warm welcome by all the county and community leadership. We have seen a lot of traction and movement since the new government came in,” Kenya Broadcasting Corporation quoted Mr. Rahul Dhir as saying during a meeting with Kiraitu Murungi, Chairman of National Oil Corporation of Kenya, CEO of NOC, Leparan Morintat, and Madhan Srinivasan , Managing Director of Tullow Oil Kenya.

Dhir said that Tullow is 100 per cent committed to ‘Project Kenya’, adding that they are engaged in discussions with a few parties to come in as strategic partners.

Tullow Oil, in May 2023, submitted its revised Field Development Plan to Energy Petroleum and Regulatory Authority (EPRA), which is now reviewing it.

NOC Chairman, Kiraitu Murungi said the National Oil Corporation alone stands to earn approximately US$8 billion in value out of its 22.5 per cent carry-in interest in the estimated 500 million barrels from the Lokichar Basin alone, an amount, he said, that would be enough to cut dependency on foreign aid and lift millions of Kenyans out of poverty.

“Experts tell us that the Lokichar field asset is quantified at 472 million barrels recoverable. With the State’s carry-in interest of 22.5 per cent share in the production sharing contract, NOC stands to earn $8 billion at the current rate of $80 a barrel. We can do a lot with this kind of money,” Mr Murungi said.

He added that the country stands to benefit in terms of jobs, royalties and infrastructural development, noting that while Kenya is endowed with considerable green energy resources, the country needs an inflow of dollars that solar or wind power cannot bring into the country.

Alluding to how Ghana used its oil find to power its economy, Mr Murungi said Kenya could leverage early oil production to provide a financial cushion for the country.

The Turkana oil asset, Mr Laparan Morintat said, is the single hottest Kenyan investment at the moment, and that the sooner it is developed, the better for the country.

He said NOC would support Tullow and the Government to move faster to the production phase.

“NOC has a considerable capacity which we shall deploy to help develop our country. We host one of the few globally recognised petroleum data centres in developing economies and we are in the process of equipping our geophysical and petrochemical laboratory which will be the only one of its kind in Africa,” he noted.

Source: https://energynewsafrica.com