After striking oil, Kenya is confident that it will be lucky with natural gas. Chief Geologist in the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum John Omenge said though only small quantities of gas have been found in coastal Kenya there is likelihood that the county will find more of it.
He noted that coastal Kenya, where aerial seismic surveys have shown deposits of hydrocarbons, lies in the same geological belt as Tanzania and Mozambiquethat have recently found major deposits of natural gas.
“ Kenya has fairly good potential for gas. There have been discoveries, though of small quantities of natural gas, in a well drilled by a British firm in offshore Lamu,” said Omenge.
“The Lamu blocks are an extension of the Tanzanian and Mozambican geological belts and these two countries have found commercially viable deposits of natural gas. It is very likely that there is gas in coastalKenya,” he said.
Kenya expects natural gas to play a critical role in electricity generation as it is likely to increase generation capacity as well as allow diversification from hydro-generation. Gas might also make it possible to retire thermal generators that use fossil fuels and are costly to run.
Gas exporters
Natural gas deposits in Tanzania are estimated at 41.7 trillion cubic feet (tcf) while Mozambique estimates to have 87 trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves.
Jointly, the two countries have potential to be the third largest natural gas exporters in the world.
British firm BG Group and Stat oil of Norway is planning to build a $10 billion East African liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal well placed for exports to Asia, after the Norwegian company made a new find off the coast of Tanzania.
“We have enough gas to move forward,” Stat oil’s Head of Exploration, Tim Dodson, said recently after the company announced the discovery of between 4 trillion and 6 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in the Indian Ocean.
Exploration of natural gas in Kenya has failed to take off in earnest owing to the omission of gas terms in the public sharing contracts that firms sign with the Ministry of Energy.
The contracts only cover oil, which has made some exploration and production companies avoid drilling in areas with potential for natural gas. The lack of clear terms is problematic as some of the blocks licensed for prospection have potential for gas while the contracts were specific to oil.
Joseph Njoroge, principal secretary ministry of energy said the ministry is at the moment drawing up terms for gas explorers.
Kenya’s profile as a potential petroleum producer rose a rung higher mid this year after British oil explorer, Tullow Plc, announced that it had discovered additional deposits in the Lake Turkana basin.
Exploration wells
Tullow had a 60 per cent success rate for its Kenyaprogramme in the first six months of 2013, which included the drilling of nine exploration wells and appraising 11 others.
“Exploration and appraisal across Tullow’s operated acreage in Kenya continues to be very successful,” the company said in its trading and operations update. The highlight of the company’s activities in Kenya for the six months to June, was the discovery of fresh oil deposits with a net pay of more than 40 metres in Etuko-1, some 14 kilometres east of Twiga South-1 in the Lokichar basin.
The chances of Kenya becoming a petroleum exporter have increased, as discoveries are made and firms realise that more oil can be pumped out than first thought. Recently, Africa Oil announced that Lokichar Basin has potential to produce 368 million barrels.
By MACHARIA KAMAU, The Standard
