Kenya plans $1bn listing of National Oil at Nairobi, London bourses in 2019

Motorists fuel at the National Oil petrol station in Nyeri, central Kenya on August 5, 2015. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

In Summary

• National Oil owns exploration blocks and also has petrol stations in Kenya with about a 5 per cent share of the fuel retail market.
• The govt also intends to buy a share of two oil blocks held by Tullow and its partners
• Kenya discovered oil in 2012 and full production is expected in 2021.

By REUTERS
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Kenya plans to raise $1 billion by listing its National Oil Corporation at home and on the London Stock Exchange by early 2019.

The country also intends to buy a share of two oil blocks held by Tullow and its partners, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

Kenya discovered oil in 2012 and full production is expected in 2021 after the completion of a $2.1 billion crude oil pipeline linking the oil fields with the proposed port of Lamu on the Indian Ocean Coast.

“We need to raise money for our back-in rights,” Andrew Kamau, the principal secretary for petroleum at the Ministry of Energy, told Reuters.

Back in rights are an option granted to governments to acquire a share of blocks where oil had been struck after an initial sale to firms in the exploration phase.

No further details

Mr Kamau did not say what stakes National Oil planned to take up in the oil blocks. He did not provide further details about the listing plans.

Kenya’s National Oil Corporation is a State-owned company that handles the government’s interest in both the upstream and downstream activities in the oil business.

It owns exploration blocks and also has petrol stations in Kenya with about a 5 per cent share of the fuel retail market.

The two oil blocks, 13T and 10BB, are in Turkana County in the far north of the country where oil was first struck in 2012.

They are owned by Tullow, Africa Oil and AP Moeller Maersk.

In October, Tullow Oil’s Chief Executive Officer Paul McDade said the company would likely make a final investment decision on its Kenya project in 2019.

Small-scale production

The partners aim to start small scale production in the first half of 2018, that would involve trucking about 2,000 barrels a day to the coast.

The government has said this was not expected to generate any profit.

The government has also said it plans to issue bonds locally and abroad to raise funds for investment in the petroleum sector.