Kenya’s National Oil Corporation to Dual List in Nairobi and London in 2019

The government of Kenya plans to raise $1 billion by listing the state owned National Oil Corporation at the Nairobi Securities Exchange and the London Stock Exchange in the early part of 2019 to back in in development blocks 10BB and 13T in the South Lokichar basin according to principal secretary for petroleum at Ministry of Energy and Petroleum Andrew Kamau.

The government is yet to announce what percentage it wishes to acquire from the current joint venture partners Tullow Oil, Africa Oil and Maersk Oil and Gas.

“We need to raise money for our back-in ,’ Andrew Kamau, the principal secretary for petroleum at the Ministry of Energy, is quoted by Reuters.

The timing of the listing corresponds with the expected announcement of the final investment position by the operator Tullow Oil which expects to report on the same in 2019.

This new announcement by Kamau is similar to what former National Oil Corporation managing director Sumayya Athmani had told OilNews Kenya in 2014.

“Government has elected in that development area. If the Government exercises its option to participate, the contractor (or each entity constituting the contractor pro-rata) shall transfer to the Government that percentage interest specified by the Government. The Government’s participation shall be effective from the date the development plan hereof is adopted,’ reads part of the current Kenyan PSC.

Once the government participation has kicked in it shall own and separately take and dispose of its share in the petroleum produced and saved to which the contractor is entitled under this contract in respect to all decisions taken under the participation agreement.

The National Oil Corporation of Kenya which is currently involved in all aspects of the petroleum supply chain covering the upstream oil and gas exploration, midstream petroleum infrastructure development and downstream marketing of petroleum products may however be listed as a different entity from its current self with the Upstream,midstream, downstream and its oversight roles being handled by different government agencies.

National Oil also operates its own exploration acreage in Block 14T which is located within the Tertiary Rift Basin and runs from the shores of Lake Bogoria down to Lake Magadi Basin on the border of Kenya and Tanzania.

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