Sinister
JF-Expert Member
- Feb 18, 2013
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Construction of crude crude oil pipeline between Lokichar and Lamu Kenya is set to begin in 2020 instead of 2022 as earlier scheduled.
Mr. Bunu. Lamu East Member of Parliament announced the reports and said the early start is because environmental assessment by ESF Consultants Golder Associates (UK) Limited is nearing completion.
Turkana-Lamu crude pipeline
The pipeline will be a joint venture between the government and the Kenya Joint Venture (KJV)- whose shareholders are Tullow, Africa Oil and Total. The development is estimated to cost US $1bn.
The pipeline will be 821 km long and will transport around 80,000 barrels of oil per day from the Lokichar oilfields in Northern Kenya to the Lamu seaport. The project will be financed by 70% debt and 30% equity.
The pipeline is a key component of the US $25m Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) Corridor project, whose construction is under way in Kililana, Lamu west. Stakeholders expressed optimism that the project would be an economic game changer, particularly for the six counties that the pipeline is expected to cut across, namely Turkana, Samburu, Isiolo, Meru, Garissa and Lamu.
Kenya discovered commercial oil in 2012 in its Lokichar basin, which Tullow Oil estimates contains an estimated 560 million barrels in proven and probable reserves. Since 2012 then, the country has struck 750 million barrels of commercially viable oil, with ongoing exploration showing that the number could potentially increase to over one billion barrels.
Kenya’s early oil export project transports 600 barrels of oil per day from Turkana oilfields by road to Mombasa Port for storage, ahead of shipments expected to begin mid 2019. The East African nation has reached out to 18 global oil refinery firms in the ongoing search for buyers of crude oil exports.