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VENTURES AFRICA – Oil exploration is the real deal in Kenya at the moment, as exploration companies have struck black gold repeatedly in recent times.
The latest find was at the tourist town of Lamu where UK-based independent oil and gas exploration firm, British Gas had been working.
“British Gas Group has found oil and natural gas,” Energy Cabinet Secretary Davies Chirchir announced to a forum of energy sector stakeholders in Nairobi.
He added however that the discovery was “very prospective”, but not commercial.
The find adds to successful discoveries earlier in the year at Lokichar, near Lake Turkana by another British company Tullow Oil who has been in Kenya for three years.
British Gas’ find, according to Chirchir is located “next to Mbawa 1 and block L4 (licensed to Zarara), all in Lamu County with a high potential for gas”.
BG Group holds 45 percent stake in the block and is therefore the operator. Other partners include Thailand’s PTTEP (15 per cent) and Pancontinental Oil & Gas (15 per cent).
Discoveries made by Tullow have placed Kenya in a position where it is regarded as a promising frontier in the oil and gas industry. Already, the East African country plans to drill ten wells in different basins before the year-ends.
Kenya’s first ever find was made by a consortium led by US firm Apache Corporation in September 2010. The country had since grown the exploration side of its oil and gas industry, with new finds signifying a bright future for the industry.
Kenya’s economic growth would be boosted by oil revenues once commercial production starts. The country boasts of a 600 million barrel deposit as part of its several finds.
For Lamu, a UNESCO world heritage site that relies on tourism as the mainstay of its economy, the find was a great one, and is expected to reshape the future of the Kenyan island.
Foreign investment has continued to grow since a 2012 record of $5 billion, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The new industry is expected to attract more investments, as Kenya’s fledgeling oil industry brews with opportunities foreign and local investors can take advantage of.