This archive report was first published on 19 September 2019.
Kenya's entry into the list of oil-producing countries has been met with excitement, but some civil society groups are raising concerns about the lack of transparency in the oil deal with a Chinese company.
According to reports, Kenya exported its first crude oil shipment worth $12 million to ChemChina, a Chinese petrochemical company, last month.
Charles Wanguhu, coordinator of the Kenya Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas (KCSPOG), says the group wants to know whether the country is getting the best deal for its resource.
“The challenge that is ongoing in the sector is a lack of proper disclosure,” Wanguhu said. “So the ministry indicated there was an open bidding process, but we have not had access to any of the bidding documents, for example, on which other companies bid for the oil and how much they bid for the oil. We were asking for a more transparent process of these biddings that we could say the country got the best deal.”
Kenya's principal secretary of petroleum, Andrew Kamau, however, says the information provided by the government on who bought the oil and how much they paid was sufficient.
“It is not a fair comment,” Kamau said. “We told them who bought it, how much they bought for it, and the volume. What more would you want?”
Wanguhu fears for the future if China becomes the primary oil buyer from Kenya, citing the country's significant debt to China for infrastructure projects.
“The challenge is that we have a significant amount of debt that has been accrued to China in the building of infrastructure around the SGR, and so it's significant when you see that if our oil is going to China then the risk falls that if we are unable to service our debts that we might get into an agreement that might not be suitable for the country,” Wanguhu said.
Kenya currently produces about 2,000 barrels of oil per day, with oil explorer Tullow predicting that production could rise to 100,000 barrels per day by 2024.
