Kenyan finance minister Henry Rotich said the
initial exportation of 2,000 barrels of crude oil
from Kenya in January 2017 would be an
initial stage until the country completes the
construction of an oil pipeline.
“We plan to do an early oil export,” the
Cabinet Secretary told a news conference in
Nairobi, during the launch of an International
Monetary Fund (IMF) Regional Economic
Outlook. “We will begin to get some revenue.
We need to recover the sunk costs of the
exploration.”
Rotich said the initial sale of crude oil from
Kenya was happening at an opportune
moment when the country has developed a
fully diversified economy, which generates
income from various sectors.
Kenya has been planning to construct an 865-
km oil pipeline from the oil exploration fields
in Lokichar, in Turkana, northern Kenya, to the
Indian Ocean port of Mombasa.
The oil pipeline was initially meant to connect
Kenya-Uganda, but Kampala decided to re-
route the pipeline to Tanzania.
“We are starting with a diversified economy.
We have learnt lessons from countries which
have done the same. We are making efforts to
set up the relevant institutions to manage the
oil revenue,” Rotich said.
During the launch of the IMF Regional
Economic Outlook in Nairobi, the IMF
projected the oil shock will hit the African
economy, cutting growth to a 23-year low of
1.4 percent.
In February, the British oil exploration firm,
Tullow, which has discovered oil in Kenya,
gave 150 million US dollars to the Kenyan and
Ugandan governments for the development of
the oil sector.
Rotich said although the quantity of Kenya’s
oil exports was still low, they were likely to
increase with the completion of an oil
pipeline.
“We will discover more and drill more as we
work towards the oil pipeline. We are also
discussing how to proceed with these plans,”
Rotich said.[ATTACH=full]64558[/ATTACH]
Not really concerned as all proceeds will be looted
which oil are we expecting to exort?