RE:RE:Agete-1 Oil Discovery in Kenya Here's a mildy interesting article on East Africa oil exploration, past and present, with a section on Kenya
Exploration history. Exploration in Kenya began in the 1960s with the participation of majors, such as Shell, BP, Chevron and Total. The National Oil Corporation of Kenya (NOCK), was incorporated in 1981. However, it wasn’t until 1992 that the country discovered small quantities of oil in the Loperot-1 well in the EAR basin. Following this discovery, there was a hiatus in exploration drilling, which lasted until 2006, when Woodside began its exploration campaign and spudded the Pomboo-1 well on offshore Block L-5. Pomboo-1 was Kenya’s first deepwater well, drilled in a water depth of 2,193 m. The well “failed to encounter hydrocarbons in the objective sandstone,” and was plugged and abandoned. Woodside delayed the drilling of their second well on the L-7 license, and subsequently, allowed its licenses to expire during 2008 and left Kenya. Following Pomboo, an onshore well, Bogal-1, was drilled by CNOOC in 2009. Bogal-1 encountered only gas shows, and CNOOC left the acreage. Exploration drilling in Kenya was restarted in 2012.
Licensing activity and key players. The number of open and awarded blocks has risen rapidly over the last few years. In Jan. 2007, 14 out of 24 blocks were awarded, with many of these being study licenses or technical evaluation agreements (TEAs). The difference in Kenya’s licenses today is striking, Fig. 3. During 2012, Kenya outlined eight new blocks extending offshore into the country’s deep waters. At the time of writing, Kenya has 46 blocks that have been demarcated and gazetted. Of these, 44 have been officially awarded; one block remains under application and one block was relinquished in 2012. Licenses in Kenya have traditionally been awarded through direct negotiation. However, taking into account the high interest in its acreage, NOCK has put forward a further eight blocks that will be made available in an auction-style licensing round.