20 trucks move crude oil to Mombasa

Over 20 trucks of crude oil have been evacuated from Lokichar Oil fields in Turkana County for storage in Mombasa

This, an equivalent of 3,120 barrels of the black gold since the project was flagged off by President Uhuru Kenyatta on June 3rd.

Initially, the scheme had hoped to evacuate 2,000 barrels daily but this is yet to be achieved.

The process is expected to give room to Tullow Oil and its Joint Venture partners to drill more crude oil.

The government expects to begin export of the crude by February next year when it hits the 400,000 barrels mark.

Tullow had by last year stored up to 70,000 barrels of crude oil in Lokichar, awaiting transport to Mombasa.

Kenya is using the Early Oil Pilot Scheme to establish itself as a crude oil exporter in the region and provide valuable information for future exploration and development.

The project is expected to be a key enabler for the fuel field development and will incentivize better roads and infrastructure in the region in particular and spur electricity connectivity to more households in Turkana.

The evacuation of crude oil will enable Tullow to carry out further well tests and set up production facilities at the oil sites.

The pilot phase is being as a trial run to ascertain the viability of the local crude and source potential export markets.