Kenya’s first oil cargo is set to reach the export handling facilities at the Port of Mombasa using trucks and railway by September even as the final word on the proposed crude pipeline from Uganda continues to hang in the balance.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has given a State House team until the end of January to work out on the logistics of transporting the crude oil from the oil fields in Turkana County.
Smart Company has established that the team is working on a plan to start transporting the crude oil in trucks from Lokichar oil basin to Kitale town, then to Mombasa in special railway wagons beginning September.
“The team has been asked to work on the report expeditiously as the thinking in government circles is that Kenya has to start producing oil,” The EastAfrican quoted a source privy to the information, adding that the new Energy CS Charles Keter has been tasked to deliver on the oil export programme by September 2016.
If successful, the deal will be a big breakthrough for Kenya’s nascent oil production industry, with 2016 marking the country’s entry into the league of oil exporting nations.
However, experts note that the earliest the Turkana oil fields can be commercially exploited is 2020.
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