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Kenya to begin exporting 2,000 barrels of oil per day in July 2017

Xinhua, June 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

Kenya announced on Friday it will begin exporting 2,000 barrels of crude oil per day from July 2017.

Deputy Chief of Staff in the Executive Office of the President Nzioka Waita told a media briefing in Nairobi that the oil will come from the resources in Lokichar Basin in Northern Kenya.

"The crude oil will be evacuated by road and rail as we wait for the completion of the oil pipeline by 2022," Waita said during the unveiling of the Second Quarter 2016 Petroleum Insight.

The East African nation made its first oil discovery in March 2012 and has so far confirmed 750 million barrels of recoverable crude oil deposits.

Waita said that Kenya is committed to benefiting from its natural resources as soon as possible in order to improve public service delivery.

He noted that the country is currently facing a shortage of skilled technical staff in the oil exploration sector.

"We want to ensure that the 160 technical vocational schools in Kenya can produce technicians who can increase the number of local experts in the oil sector," he added.

According to the ministry of energy and petroleum, the country's strategic petroleum reserves is enough to cover needs for up to 40 days.

The Deputy Chief of Staff said that the government plans to increase the figure to 90 days so as to insulate the country from the vagaries of global oil price shifts.

"The government is committed to investing in increasing the strategic petroleum reserves as well as to create a policy framework to allow the private sector to be involved in the sector," he said. Endit