80pc of Kenya’s crude oil cannot be tapped
- The company said a new audit on the Turkana oil fields revealed a larger reservoir – commonly referred to as Oil Initially In Place (OIIP) in exploration parlance – compared to the previous estimate of 1.77 billion barrels.
- The commercially extractable volume climbing to 585 million barrels from the previous estimate of 433 million barrels, according to the audit by British petroleum consulting firm Gaffney Cline Associates (GCA).
- The OIIP is different from actual proven oil reserves because it represents the total amount of crude that is potentially in a reservoir and not the amount of oil that can be recovered for commercial use.
More than 80 percent of Kenya’s estimated 2.85 billion barrels oil reservoir remains inaccessible for commercial exploitation due to limitations in extraction technology, British oil firm Tullow said in an update on its exploration programme in Turkana County.
The company said a new audit on the Turkana oil fields revealed a larger reservoir – commonly referred to as Oil Initially In Place (OIIP) in exploration parlance – compared to the previous estimate of 1.77 billion barrels.
The commercially extractable volume climbing to 585 million barrels from the previous estimate of 433 million barrels, according to the audit by British petroleum consulting firm Gaffney Cline Associates (GCA).
The OIIP is different from actual proven oil reserves because it represents the total amount of crude that is potentially in a reservoir and not the amount of oil that can be recovered for commercial use.
“The 2.85 billion barrels is what is called “oil in place”, it is not reserves; what’s key is how much can be recovered and the number of 585million barrels is comparable to other onshore oil fields around the world,” Tullow told Business Daily.
“It is possible that (in future) technology may see greater recovery from the field but 585 million barrels is our best estimate at present.”
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