#Kenya with exporting a #crude_oil cargo on Monday became the first #exporter of oil in East of Africa. However, according to Al Jazeera, Kenya needs time to provide all required infrastructures for producing oil. Kenya’s first oil cargo was over 200,000 MT. The first attempts at finding oil in Kenya date back to 1937 but it was not until 2012 that a commercially-viable deposit was located. Chinese trading company “ChemChina” bought this oil cargo for USD$12 million (10.8 million euros) in order to export to Malaysia.
There may be tensions in Kenya about how to divide the oil wealth! Uhuru Kenyatta, the President of the Republic of Kenya, signed into law the Petroleum Act of 2019. According to this rule, 75% of the state-designated oil profits belong to central government, 20% to oil-producing cities, and 5% to local communities.
“There are special moments that mark a turning point in the destiny of our nation,” Kenyatta said at the ceremony. He added “The first export of crude oil by our nation, therefore, marks a special moment in our history as a people and as a country.”
#Turkana is estimated to have 560 million barrels of crude oil and it is scheduled to extract 100000 barrels per day till 2024, requiring investment in excavation and pipelines.