Kenya’s oil reserves hit 750 million barrels, Tullow

Kenya’s oil reserves have increased to 750 million barrels up from 600 million barrels, oil exploration firm Tullow has announced.

According to Tullow, ongoing assessment of oil wells in the Lokichar basin in Turkana showed increased oil resources.

“Following this encouraging basin opening well and the successful Etom-2 result in the South Lokichar Basin in December 2015, further exploration activities are being evaluated,” Tulllow said in a note to shareholders

The re-evaluation of the country’s reserves comes a time the government is back at the drawing board over how to evacuate crude oil.

Talks between Kenya and Uganda over a joint pipeline collapsed last week, forcing the government to start from scratch with its own pipeline construction.

“The Group continues to review options for re-starting the exploration campaign in this basin to de-risk the overall upside potential of 1 billion barrels,” the oil exploration firm said.

Already the government has announced that it would trial evacuation of crude from Lokichar using a combination of trucks, rail and pipeline to the port of Mombasa.

Tullow plans transport an estimated three thousand barrels of early oil during the pilot stage.