Oil exports from Kenya to start by July

Kenya is set to ship out its first oil export in two months. The shipment will contain 200,000 barrels of crude oil extracted from the Turkana oil wells.

Government officials and Tullow Oil executives are currently on a tour of Australia and Asia in search of buyers for the commodity according to a report by the National Broadcaster KBC.

Kenya will pick the highest bidder for the oil sale with the minimum bid price set at $50 (~KSh5,000) per barrel. Therefore, the country expects to raise more than $10 million (KSh1 billion) from the initial sale.

The international price of crude oil has been fluctuating in the past one year and currently stands at roughly $60 (~KSh6,000) per barrel.

The Principal Secretary in charge of Petroleum Andrew Kamau said that his ministry had received an environment assessment license from the National Environment Management Authority which allows commercial exploration of oil. The country plans to start large scale production and exportation of oil in 2022.