The Kenyan government and local lawmakers from the oil-rich Turkana region reached an agreement on the distribution of oil revenues that was preventing the country from beginning the development of its oil resources in earnest.
Under a bill proposed at the start of this year, Bloomberg reports, Kenya offered local communities 5 percent of the revenues to be generated by the exploitation of oil and gas reserves, with another 20 percent going to the local government. However, the bill had a caveat: the amount of money must not exceed central government money allocations for the regions.
The Turkana lawmakers were okay with receiving 20 percent of revenues with another 5 going to the local communities but they were not okay with the caveat regarding central government allocations. Now, the central government has agreed to drop this particular part of the proposal.
President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the deal over the weekend, as reported by Reuters, and today it was confirmed by a Turkana member of parliament to Bloomberg. "We will intensify our exploration efforts not just in Turkana but in the rest of the country now that we have a legal instrument that can help guide how oil and gas will be handled in our republic," Kenyatta said.
Kenya has stored 70,000 barrels of oil in the north of the country, waiting to be trucked to the Mombasa port for pilot exports, awaiting the solution of the revenue-sharing problem. Now that this issue has been settled, the…
The Kenyan government and local lawmakers from the oil-rich Turkana region reached an agreement on the distribution of oil revenues that was preventing the country from beginning the development of its oil resources in earnest.
Under a bill proposed at the start of this year, Bloomberg reports, Kenya offered local communities 5 percent of the revenues to be generated by the exploitation of oil and gas reserves, with another 20 percent going to the local government. However, the bill had a caveat: the amount of money must not exceed central government money allocations for the regions.
The Turkana lawmakers were okay with receiving 20 percent of revenues with another 5 going to the local communities but they were not okay with the caveat regarding central government allocations. Now, the central government has agreed to drop this particular part of the proposal.
President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the deal over the weekend, as reported by Reuters, and today it was confirmed by a Turkana member of parliament to Bloomberg. "We will intensify our exploration efforts not just in Turkana but in the rest of the country now that we have a legal instrument that can help guide how oil and gas will be handled in our republic," Kenyatta said.
Kenya has stored 70,000 barrels of oil in the north of the country, waiting to be trucked to the Mombasa port for pilot exports, awaiting the solution of the revenue-sharing problem. Now that this issue has been settled, the country is ready to begin test exports.
Commercial quantities of crude oil in Kenya were discovered in 2012 in the South Lokichar Basin in the north. Tullow Oil, which discovered the resources, has continued its exploration and appraisal drilling campaigns in Kenya.
At the end of October 2017, Kenya's government signed a Joint Development Study Agreement (JDA) with Tullow Oil, Africa Oil, and Maersk Oil for a proposed Lokichar-Lamu crude oil pipeline between the Turkana county and the Lamu port on the coast.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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