The National Treasury now says fuel prices could increase further in the near future as the government seeks to gradually remove the subsidy cushioning Kenyans against high cost. In a Continue Reading
Kenya’s recent fuel crisis has left petrol pumps dry. Politicians are blaming each other and giving varied reasons for the shortage, from the government being inept to government plans to Continue Reading
A family migrates in search of grazing land in Wajir County, Kenya. A worsening drought has left 3.5 million people in need of food aid in Kenya. The number of Continue Reading
The countrywide shortage of petrol continued to be felt on Monday despite the Government cautioning players in the market against hoarding the commodity. An immediate impact of the acute shortage Continue Reading
Queues at gas stations in Kenya grew longer over the weekend as delayed payments of subsidies meant to stabilize fuel prices led to gasoline shortages across the East African nation. Continue Reading
When Kenya opened the Olkaria power plant four decades ago, it was considered more research project than commercial venture. Located in Hell’s Gate National Park, a barren zone of volcanic Continue Reading
Had everything gone according to plan, Kenya would be reading to begin its commercial export of crude oil on a large scale next year. This was after success in sale Continue Reading
The U.S. military said that an attack on a shared military base by Somalia’s al Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab on Sunday killed three Americans, highlighting the threat the Islamist group still poses Continue Reading
The Somali government says it’s not ready to take any action that could threaten its relationship with its neighbor Kenya. The announcement comes amidst simmering tensions over potential offshore oil Continue Reading
The scandal of siphoned fuel at Kenya Pipeline Company deepened on Wednesday after it emerged that 51 million litres of jet fuel, worth Sh5 billion, has gone missing from the Continue Reading
The Kenyan government has warned that it will not cede an inch of its soil in the disputed maritime border with Somalia even as it affirmed that it is committed Continue Reading
Kenya has recalled its ambassador to Somalia Lt. Gen. Lucas Tumbo after it emerged that oil and gas blocks in disputed territorial areas were auctioned to the United Kingdom. According Continue Reading
The Norwegian consultancy firm that gathered data on Mogadishu’s oil stock in the Indian Ocean says it only worked on blocks in Somali territory. The information gathered by Spectrum Geo Continue Reading
Crude oil deposits discovered in Kenya are insufficient to justify construction of a refinery, a senior petroleum ministry official said on Tuesday. Kenya discovered commercial oil in 2012 in its Lokichar Continue Reading
Attendants at stations that lacked fuel, he said, told him that petrol quickly ran out on Wednesday as the shortage started to bite. Matatu drivers have also indicated that they Continue Reading
A fuel crisis has hit the country following a boycott by Kenya Independent Petroleum Distributors over the 16% VAT on fuel. Long queues were witnessed at various petrol stations as Continue Reading
Tullow Oil had threatened over the weekend to shut down its oil wells in the Lokichar basin if the government does not act soon to remedy production, security, and transportation Continue Reading
Kenya’s oil industry is facing new challenges as Tullow Oil threatened over the weekend to shut down its oil wells in the Lokichar basin if the government does not act Continue Reading
Six years after British firm Tullow Oil announced that it had struck oil in Kenya, four tankers, each carrying 156 barrels arrived in Mombasa on Thursday. It is East Africa’s Continue Reading
Kenya took a step toward building an export pipeline from its oil fields to the port city of Lamu with the award of an early-phase design contract, Wood said. Oil Continue Reading
Kenya has decided to allocate 20 percent of future oil revenues to the communities where crude oil has been discovered, cutting the share from an initial proposal to give local Continue Reading
Kenya plans to allocate 30 percent of future oil revenues to the community where the crude oil has been discovered, backtracking on a previous proposal to cap revenues at specific Continue Reading
Kenya’s mountains of plastic bags might not seem central to oil’s grand narrative, but they are. Last week, the East African country banned almost everything about them: making them, importing Continue Reading
Tullow Oil has found more oil with a closely watched exploration well in northwest Kenya, boosting the resources in its emerging oil province which is set to feed East Africa’s Continue Reading
The Kenyan government has been urged to consider a pipeline for oil exports to reap maximum benefit from the proposed early production. According to oil and gas experts, the basic Continue Reading
Tullow said to plan eight more exploration wells in Lokichar Nation holds 750 million barrels of recoverable resources Tullow Oil Plc will put Kenya on the map of oil producers Continue Reading
Lokichar Basin Kenyan officials said oil from the Lokichar Basin will begin reaching foreign markets at a rate of 2,000 barrels of crude per day by July 2017, according to Continue Reading
Kenya has created an extra 17 new oil exploration blocks, bringing its total to 63 and aims to auction them in a licensing round in 2017, Kenyan newspapers quoted Ministry Continue Reading
A Canadian oil company with a focus on Africa said an independent survey of its holdings in Kenya led it to increase its reserve estimate by 24 percent. Africa Oil Continue Reading
A toxic convergence of national, corporate and personal interest on two competing oil pipeline routes is threatening regional integration in a dramatic saga involving Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya and Continue Reading
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta hosts his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni in the capital, Nairobi, on Monday for talks on a proposed pipeline to ferry crude from oilfields being developed by Continue Reading
Construction of the Tanzania-Uganda crude oil pipeline begins in August and will be complete in two years, even as Kenya negotiates to have the pipeline go north through Lamu. The Continue Reading
Kenyan government officials are set to hold a meeting with their Ugandan counterparts to resolve outstanding issues with the hope of influencing the proposed crude oil pipeline route infavour of Continue Reading
Tullow Oil Plc gained after a successful well increased the potential size of oil resources the Africa-focused explorer has discovered in Kenya. The Etom-2 well in northern Kenya encountered 102 Continue Reading
Tullow Oil said it found no commercial prospects in frontier basin in northern Kenya despite earlier optimism and results. Photo courtesy of Tullow Oil LONDON, Nov. 17 (UPI) — Despite earlier optimism about the reserve potential in frontier African oil and gas basins, Tullow Oil said it came up empty handed in its efforts in Kenya. Tullow, which has headquarters in London, said it didn’t find any hydrocarbons worth exploring further at a frontier, or wildcat, well in northern Kenya. "While this wildcat well did not find commercial hydrocarbons, it provides valuable data as we assess the wider prospectivity of this basin," Angus McCoss, the company’s exploration director, said in a statement. Tullow is placing bets on emerging basins in Africa, notably offshore developments in Ghana. Like its peers, the company said it’s been a "difficult year" for energy companies working through a period of historically low oil prices. […]
Nairobi — Kenya has shrugged off fears over a decision by neighbouring Uganda to consider building a crude oil pipeline through Tanzania. Kenya brushed aside concerns that Uganda’s plan, if it proves cheaper than the alternatives, would scuttle its infrastructural plans for its own oil pipeline. Acting Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia told the Nation on Wednesday that while Kenya is "keenly keeping a close watch on the unfolding events in Uganda", it would go ahead with its own infrastructural plans "undeterred". "We are going according to our own plans. Nothing has changed," said Mr Macharia in Nairobi. Last month, it emerged that Kenya’s prospects of a crude oil pipeline through Hoima-Lokichar-Lamu could be crushed after Uganda signed an agreement with Tanzania to explore the Tanga route. Uganda, Tanzania, the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation and Total E&P Uganda signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) outlining new pipeline arrangements. The […]
Fidgety oil companies and investors heaved a sigh of relief in August when Kenya and Uganda announced they had picked a route for the world’s longest heated pipeline. Finally, there was a plan for getting the estimated 1 billion barrels in Kenya’s remote northwest out of the country. The proposed route cut from northern Uganda’s Albertine region, into Kenya, through the Lokichar Basin, and then southeast before terminating in Kenya’s coastal Lamu County. It would have allowed Kenya to share the cost of piping oil with Uganda, which has 6.5 billion barrels of its own oil that it wants to get to market. But this week Uganda turned around and announced it had instead signed an agreement with Tanzania and Total (which is exploring in Uganda) to consider a pipeline for Ugandan oil through Tanzania, bypassing Kenya altogether. Proposed oil pipelines in East Africa Proposed oil pipelines in East […]
Kenya started talks with neighboring Uganda on the financing and construction of an oil pipeline that will link the two countries and ferry crude produced by companies including Tullow Oil Plc, the Kenyan Energy Ministry said. Discussions that also looked at project time frames and involved officials from both East African countries began this week, Joseph Njoroge, the ministry’s principal secretary, said in a phone interview from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, on Wednesday. The negotiations follow an announcement by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Aug. 10 that the route for the conduit had been agreed after months of debate. “We have started working out the details together with the Ugandans,” Njoroge said. “We will also engage as many stakeholders as we can. We want this project to take off immediately.” Tullow has found oil in both countries, with Uganda estimating finds at 6.5 billion barrels and Kenya at 600 million […]
Kenya and neighboring Uganda agreed on the route of a planned oil pipeline, ending months of debate on the link that will export crude from companies including Tullow Oil Plc. The pipeline will pass through the Lokichar basin in northern Kenya, Manoah Esipisu, spokesman for Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, said Monday by phone from the Ugandan capital, Kampala. The countries had also discussed building the link through southern Kenya and the capital, Nairobi. The agreed design will be the cheapest to develop, according to an e-mailed statement from the Ugandan presidency. Tullow has found oil in both countries, with Uganda estimating finds at 6.5 billion barrels and Kenya at 600 million barrels . The planned $4.5 billion pipeline to the Indian Ocean will allow the U.K. company to start exports from joint ventures with Africa Oil Corp. and Total SA. China’s Cnooc Ltd. is also a partner in Uganda. […]
Photo Virunga National Park, the oldest in Africa, has been the center of an intense conflict between the forces of economic development and environmental conservation. Credit Uriel Sinai for The New York Times NAIROBI, Kenya — When a British oil company began prospecting for oil in Africa’s oldest national park , drawing worldwide concern and inspiring an Oscar-nominated documentary last year, the company was adamant in denying any wrongdoing. Though soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo may have engaged in a campaign of intimidation and coercion against nearby residents who are opposed to drilling in the park, the company said it could not be held responsible for their actions. “We can’t tell the army to go and kiss off,” Roger Cagle, the deputy chief executive director of the oil company, SOCO International, told The Telegraph newspaper in Britain. He said that the soldiers had been assigned by the […]
Not even the specter of a spillover of Islamic extremism from Somalia can dampen the atmosphere in Kenya, where commercial oil production is expected to begin in 2016 and discovery after discovery has made this the hottest and fastest-paced hydrocarbon scene on the continent. When it comes to new oil and gas frontiers, today it’s all about Africa. And more specifically, it’s all about the eastern coast, with Kenya the clear darling–not just because it’s outpacing neighboring Uganda by leaps and bounds, but also because despite some political instability hiccups and the threat of militant al-Shabaab, it’s still one of the safest venues in the region. Six of the last 10 biggest finds have been in Africa, where—all told–there are some 130 billion barrels of crude oil waiting to be tapped by more than 500 companies, according to a recent report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Topping this list are Kenya’s Anza […]
Kenya expects its estimate of oil resources to almost double to 1 billion barrels as well-drilling climbs and the government forges ahead with plans to build an export pipeline, an energy ministry official said. Tullow Oil Plc. (TLW) and its partner Africa Oil Corp. (AOI) have discovered an estimated 600 million barrels of oil in the South Lokichar Basin since announcing the country’s first crude find in March 2012. The discovery has spurred the East African nation to accelerate infrastructure-development plans, including construction of an oil pipeline that will link Uganda to a planned port in the Kenyan coastal town of Lamu. Initial data acquired from northern Kenya indicates the figure for estimated oil resources is set to rise with increased drilling, said Petroleum Commissioner Martin Heya. “Most licenses will move to the drilling stage next year because that is when their initial license period of two to three […]
Kenya is in the final stage of enacting a new climate change law, expected to be approved in the coming months. At the same time, the private sector is preparing to tap significant oil reserves in the north. Will the hunt for fossil fuels thwart Kenya’s efforts to go green and curb its carbon emissions? After a 2007 study forecast how climate change would impact Kenya, a National Climate Change Response Strategy was launched at the 2009 U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen. The government then developed a Climate Change Action Plan to implement the strategy, which was completed in March 2013. The action plan spells out how to tackle climate change at local, county and national levels. The next step is to enshrine that in law. "We realised we had collected enough information to start preparing climate change legislation, because it cuts across all sectors – hence the need […]
Kenya is in the final stage of enacting a new climate change law, expected to be approved in the coming months. At the same time, the private sector is preparing to tap significant oil reserves in the north. Will the hunt for fossil fuels thwart Kenya’s efforts to go green and curb its carbon emissions? After a 2007 study forecast how climate change would impact Kenya, a National Climate Change Response Strategy was launched at the 2009 U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen. The government then developed a Climate Change Action Plan to implement the strategy, which was completed in March 2013. The action plan spells out how to tackle climate change at local, county and national levels. The next step is to enshrine that in law. "We realised we had collected enough information to start preparing climate change legislation, because it cuts across all sectors – hence the need […]
Should Uganda and Kenya finally build a crude oil export pipeline, it will be the longest heated such facility in the world. According to a report released last month by Tullow Oil Plc, both countries have agreed to build the pipeline and have commenced a comprehensive study on the pipeline. "Tullow and its partners have agreed with the government of Kenya to commence development studies. In addition, the partnership is involved in a comprehensive study for an export pipeline," the Tullow Oil Plc annual report 2013 reads. According to the report, the export pipeline route on the Kenyan side is expected to run mostly underground, over 850 kilometres from the Lokichar basin to the coast. Kenya is to construct the pipeline from Lokichar basin while Uganda is expected to construct its part of the pipeline from the Lake Albert rift basin to link up with the Kenyan pipeline and […]
Should Uganda and Kenya finally build a crude oil export pipeline, it will be the longest heated such facility in the world. According to a report released last month by Tullow Oil Plc, both countries have agreed to build the pipeline and have commenced a comprehensive study on the pipeline. "Tullow and its partners have agreed with the government of Kenya to commence development studies. In addition, the partnership is involved in a comprehensive study for an export pipeline," the Tullow Oil Plc annual report 2013 reads. According to the report, the export pipeline route on the Kenyan side is expected to run mostly underground, over 850 kilometres from the Lokichar basin to the coast. Kenya is to construct the pipeline from Lokichar basin while Uganda is expected to construct its part of the pipeline from the Lake Albert rift basin to link up with the Kenyan pipeline and […]
British energy explorer Tullow Oil said Thursday some of its oil reserve areas in Kenya were poorly developed, though it remained upbeat about the potential. Tullow announced exploration results from Blocks 10BB and 13T, which it operates in parity with Africa Oil Corp. Tullow said it encountered a "poorly developed oil bearing reservoir" in Block 13T, though deploying rigs elsewhere in the nearby Amosing discovery would target an area it said "may be one of the largest discoveries in the basin to date." African Oil Corp., in a separate statement , said early 2013 testing from both blocks yielded a flow rate of about 5,000 barrels of oil per day. Angus McCoss, exploration director for Tullow, said in a statement early exploration results from Kenya were in line with expectations. "Our focus remains on continuing to explore and appraise our first successful basin, as well as stepping out into […]
Kenya and Uganda were recruiting investors to back an oil pipeline in South Sudan in December when a rebellion upended the world’s newest nation. Now the two East African nations have joined a diplomatic effort to end the conflict in South Sudan —yet another reminder of how the security crises of a volatile region intrude on efforts to boost commerce among its countries. "I’m not sleeping," Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said in a televised address last week. "I am monitoring the crisis which is taking place in the young country of South Sudan and I want to see that peace is attained there." More than 1,000 people have died and more than 100,000 have fled their homes since troops loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar rose up in December against those loyal to President Salva Kiir . On Tuesday, South Sudanese military spokesman Philip Aguer said government troops […]
A proposed oil pipeline from central Uganda to the coast of Kenya could be a vital step toward unlocking East Africa’s potential, Wood Mackenzie said Wednesday. "There is huge untapped potential across both countries, with over 3.5 billion barrels of [expected] volumes in Kenya, and a further 1 billion barrels of [expected] reserves in Uganda," Martin Kelly, an African analyst for energy consultant Wood Mackenzie, said in a statement. "The proposed pipeline is fundamental in unlocking value for both countries." Wood Mackenzie estimates it will cost at least $4 billion to build an 869-mile long pipeline from central Uganda to the Kenyan coast. Uganda is a landlocked country and the region in general lacks the infrastructure needed to take full advantage of the oil potential. Wood Mackenzie adds the type of oil found in Uganda needs to be heated in order to facilitate pipeline […]
The Chinese, investing heavily in Africa to secure its oil and other raw materials for their expanding economy, are spearheading a new era of railroad building to unlock the continent’s interior. This is an echo of the long-gone colonial empires when a century ago British and French engineers first opened up Africa to plunder its riches. The railroad frenzy is being accompanied by a massive push to build several major ports along the coast of East Africa to accelerate exports across the Indian Ocean, mostly to China, India and Japan, as well as lay down a network of oil and gas pipelines to these ports. “Railways are key to increasing regional trade,” said Darlan Fabio de David, chief executive of Rift Valley Railways, a private equity-backed company rehabilitating the line between the Kenyan port of Mombasa and the inland Ugandan capital of Uganda […]
