Kenya ishatoboa oil and now we are headed to a phase which will see the ‘black gold’ flowing in abundance from the oil fields of Turkana all the way down to the shores of the Indian Ocean and beyond.
If it has not started already, turning on the oil pumping stations will as well serve a secondary purpose; acting as a green light for kleptocrats and allied tenderprenuers to begin racing towards hitting that ‘all important target in life’; joining the billion-dollar individuals club.
Kenya is set to witness the birth of a handful of its own dollar billionares; its own Roman Abramoviches, Mikhail Khodorkovskys, and Vladmir Bogdanovs.
And, sorry, no price for guessing who the top contenders for the title ‘Kenyan Oligarchs’ are.
Relax. We may be still far from those discussions.
Kenya’s oil reserves 1 Billion Barrels ( 2016).
Ghanas oil reserves 5 Billion Barrels ( 2010).
As a comparison, Ghana has been in commercial production since 2010 with its reserves being discovered in the 1970s. Approximate production is 72 Million Barrels per year. Russia’s is 3 Billion Barrels per year. We are not even close to commercial production. I believe it is not even known if the deposits are commercially viable. Those decisions will be made in 2022 ( according to Tullow). These are just test runs. Production challenges await.
Our oil is too little to breed dollar billionaires…
Kenyans will find a way, even by making oil a stepping stone.
Nigeria is doing a thousand times ours.