Last Updated 14 years ago by Kenya Engineer
US petroleum company, Marathon Oil is set to join the list of firms exploring oil and gas in the Kenya after it signed a deal to acquire stakes in two blocks. The Houston based company agreed to acquire a 50 per cent stake in Block 9 held by Canada’s Africa Oil in the north eastern but is subject to government approval.
Marathon Oil also plans to acquire a 15 per cent stake on Block 12A in the Rift Valley now controlled by Africa Oil and its British partner, Tullow Oil. Africa Oil will however maintain operatorship in Block 9 but Marathon Oil has the right to assume operatorship if a commercial discovery is made.
It will pay Africa Oil an entry sum of $35 million which includes prior expenditures and fund the Canadian firms’ working interests for the next three years at a total budget of $43.5 million.
The companies expect to drill an exploration well on Block 9 in the second quarter of 2013.On Block 12A, 2-D seismic acquisition is expected to start in the third quarter of this year.
Exploration interest has increased recently after oil and gas explorer Tullow Oil encountered huge potential reserves of the commodity in their Block 10 BB well. Marathon Oil’s entry to the Kenyan oil play provides a further signal that Kenya and East Africa is fast becoming a hot spot for onshore exploration of oil and gas. New finds in countries like Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique have further spurred the exploration operations in the region.
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