TotalEnergies and partner exit Kenyan oil project

NAIROBI, May 24, 2023 – Africa Oil Corporation and French energy giant TotalEnergies have withdrawn from the South Lokichar project in Kenya, the Canadian E&P independent announced on Tuesday.

The deal will see the partners pass their 25% interest each in blocks 10BB, 13T and 10BA to operator Tullow Oil, which will take full ownership of the concessions.

“We have taken the decision to exit our Kenya concessions as our strategy has shifted to focus on production and high potential exploration opportunities, including our Orange Basin portfolio where we are now appraising the exciting Venus discovery, offshore Namibia,” said Keith Hill, president and CEO of Africa Oil Corporation.

 

The scope of proposed development in north-western Kenya consisted of tapping 585 million barrels of oil found at multiple onshore fields on the South Lokichar basin and transporting 130,000 bopd via an 895-kilometre pipeline to a terminal at Lamu port.

The plan involves a phased development, with the Ngamia and Amosing fields coming on line first followed by the Ekales and Twiga fields.

The project is estimated to cost USD 2 billion for upstream facilities and USD 1.4 billion to build the pipeline.

Given political and technical challenges, the project was put on hold and is now four years behind its original schedule.

Tullow Oil continues to look for partners for the development after submitting an updated field development plan to Kenyan regulator Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority in March 2023.