Kenya picked ChemChina as its first buyer of crude oil. “The decision was made after a rigorous bidding process dated July 26 which involved eight bids from Asian and European Countries,” said Petroleum PS Andrew Kamau. Additionally, the decision to award ChemChina the tender was based on competitive prices and international best practices.
“ChemChina offered to buy 200,000 barrels at $ 12 million,” revealed President Uhuru earlier this month. This price translates to $60 (KSh6,180) per barrel as compared to the current Brent crude oil market price of $58.80 (KSh6,056).
Tullow and its partners discovered commercial oil reserves in 2012 in Turkana’s Lokichar Basin. The project is a joint venture by Tullow Oil (50%), Total (25%) and Africa Oil Corp (25%).
In 2018, the country began preparations for export where it started testing the rate of flow and other technical issues of approximately 2000 barrels per day in preparation for mass production and shipping.
Kenya anticipates exploiting the 560 million barrel oil reserves in 2022, where it will produce 100,000 barrels per day. There are plans to construct a pipeline in 2022 to aid transportation and export of the oil.