Kenya will have to wait until after 2025 to get the petrodollars from the Turkana oil fields after the government extended the exploration timeline for Tullow.
On Wednesday, the British Oil explorer said it had been given 15 more moths for the exploration phase of the Turkana oil project. The announcement essentially pushed the production timelines and extended the long-awaited final investment decision.
“Kenya has agreed to an initial extension to the second additional exploration period for the 10BB and 13T license blocks until 31 December 2020 with a final extension until 31 December 2021, contingent on an agreed work program and budgets,” Tullow said in a statement.
Tullow in a statement said the extension was part of the deal that led to its lifting of a force majeure on the project last month.
The company said it had suspended its intended sale of a stake in the project without specifying its plan on the intended farm down for a 50 percent shareholding in blocks 10BB and 3T in the Turkana.
“The farm down process has been suspended while the joint venture partners complete a comprehensive review of the development concept to ensure it continues to be robust at low oil prices, and also consider the strategic alternatives for the asset,” Tullow added.
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Timelines forwarded
The move now carries forward the timelines for the project that has originally set for 2021 before several extensions.
The explorer who registered a 138 percent drop to a loss of $1.3 billion for the last six months, will need to get funds together with the Kenyan Government to build a pipeline after the making an investment decision.
This will be then followed by another 38 months to build the Lamu-Lokichar pipelined, something that will put the country’s first yield from the oil resources beyond 2025.
