Turkana to keep 20pc of oil cash, reveals official
A worker at an oil well in Turkana County. Photo/FILE
The Turkana community stands to receive up to 20 per cent of oil revenue should the oil find be fully commercialised, the ministry of Energy has said.
The ministry also announced at the weekend that people living around the exploration sites would neither be displaced nor relocated.
Commissioner of Petroleum Martin Heya said that the government was revising the Minerals Act to address concerns raised by communities and other stakeholders in the sector.
“The oil find calls for revision of the Minerals Act. We now have active oil prospecting and hope of commercialisation is high. We have already commissioned 35 blocks to different contractors and six are under active negotiations,” Mr Heya told a stakeholders meeting in Lodwar.
Turkana leaders, under the auspices of Turkana Leadership Forum, had tasked government representatives at the meeting to reveal the oil revenue sharing plan and petroleum sharing contract between Tullow Oil PLC and the ministry of Energy.
The chief geologist at the ministry of Energy, Mr John Omwenge, said that about 63, 000 kilometres square of land in Turkana County was under oil exploration, but nobody would be displaced.
Expressed fears
“What we are doing in Turkana currently is exploration, which might go on for the next seven years.
“If the oil find will be commercially viable, then the government might require land to set up a drilling site from the community,” Mr Omwenge said.
The community had expressed fears that its people would be displaced to pave the way for oil prospecting.
The meeting convened by the Ministry Energy brought together leaders, stakeholders and the residents to resolve differences regarding oil exploration in Turkana and respond to the concerns raised by the residents over the project.
Officials from Tullow Oil PLC were in attendance.
Local leaders tasked MPs present to disclose the contents of the contract signed by the Ministry of Energy and Tullow Oil.
Turkana Central MP Ekwee Ethuro, a member of Parliamentary Committee on Energy, was asked to divulge the contents of the contract.
