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Oil Exploration: China Starts Work on Kenya’s Deepest Drill as Hopes Rise
By Muli wa Kyendo
Oil exploration: Kenya's industries like this modern coffee processing plant will benefit from cheap oil
Hopes are high that Kenya will join the ranks of world’s oil rich countries after China started work on its deepest drill – expected to reach over 5,556 meters. The Minister for Energy Mr. Kiraitu Murungi is advising Kenyans to be “cautiously optimistic about discovering oil until it actually happens.”
It will take Chinese firm not less than six months before results from the well are known, Mr. Murungi told investors watching the Chinese telecast at a Nairobi hotel to mark the start of the work.
Poor Earlier Assessment
Kenya, together with other East Africa countries, has been lagging behind in the search for oil after earlier exploratory searches indicated that the region did not have oil in large enough quantities for commercial exploitation. And although Uganda, one of the three East African countries, recently struck oil, the region has so far drilled only 500 wells.
That is far much less than wells drilled in other parts of Africa. More than 14,000 wells have been drilled in West Africa while in North Africa, more than 24,000 well have been drilled.
Chinese Aggressiveness Spurs Activity
Chinese aggressiveness in searching for new sources of oil is however giving the search a new impetus fuelled by a general belief that the region has oil contrary to the earlier pessimistic reports. Chinese is the world second largest oil consumer after the United States. And its fast expanding economy, growing at the rate of 9 per cent has speeded the race to find secure energy supplied to sustain rapid economic growth.
Its imports top 4.1 million barrels of oil every day and are expected to reach 13.1 billion a day in 2030. In 2008, China imported 200.67 million tons of oil, accounting for 52 percent of the total global oil consumption. In 2009 China used the opportunity of the global recession to expand and diversify its oil supplies, and made a number of positive changes in its oil strategy.
Expansion of the supplies of oil it gets from Africa forms an important part of this policy. China began seeking raw materials in Africa in 1996 and has invested heavily to secure oil supplies. But late entry into the market meant China was left with less promising options. A large share of the national oil companies’ (NOCs) production comes from countries such as Mali and Niger which have relatively small output potential and a limited history of exploration.
Early in October 2009, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, a state -controlled company signed a multi-billion-dollar project to improve Kenya’s transport infrastructure in return for oil. The current drill, in the semi-arid northern part of Kenya, will cost $26 million.
African countries currently supplying China with oil include Angola, Congo Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Sudan which together make up 85 per cent of China’s oil imports.
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