Kenya exports first consignment of crude oil

Kenya became the first East African country to join the world’s league of oil exporters on Monday after President Uhuru Kenyatta officially saw off its first consignment from the port of Mombasa, an official said.

The Minister of Petroleum and Mining, John Munyes, made the announcement in Nairobi.

This is a “big milestone” for Kenya; the ministry tweeted, as about 200,000 barrels of crude oil left the harbour.

This is the first time that crude oil has been exported since its discovery in the north-western county of Turkana, near the border with South Sudan, in 2012.

So far, the oil has had to be transported to Mombasa by road, but there are plans to build a pipeline linking the oilfields to the new port in Lamu on Kenya’s northern coast in the near future, said Munyes.

He said he hoped that the oil exports would open up the marginalised north of the country to development.

Kenyatta said that Kenya’s oil and gas exploration dates back to 1937, but until now the country’s greatest exports, according to the World Bank, have been horticultural products, tea and coffee.

The biggest oil producers in Africa presently are Nigeria in the west and Angola in the south-west.

-dpa/NAN