NAIROBI, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Kenya is seeking to attract foreign investors to exploit the country's oil and gas resources, a government official said on Thursday.
John Mosonik, chief administrative secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining, told a regional trade forum in Nairobi that Kenya's total sedimentary basins surface area is 485,000 square km with 63 gazetted exploration blocks onshore and offshore.
"Currently 27 blocks are licensed, and 36 blocks are hence open to investors," Mosonik said during the opening ceremony of the 8th oil and gas international trade exhibition.
The three-day event brought together Kenya's energy industry and foreign participants from 22 countries who are the leaders in their respective segments.
The international trade event is a crucial platform to propel the energy sector in Kenya to new heights and gain a strong lead in the East African region and the African continent.
Mosonik said that oil exploration in Kenya began in 1954 before the country achieved independence, after which upstream activities continued in varying intensities.
He observed that between 1960 and 1992, 32 wells were drilled all none of which yielded commercially viable oil deposits.
In 2012, Tullow Oil announced the discovery of 300 million barrels of oil in Turkana rekindling Kenya's prospects of becoming an oil producing nation.
According to the ministry of petroleum, so far 10 discoveries have been made in the South Lokichar Basin in northwest Kenya with a recoverable resource currently estimated at 560 million barrels of oil, with the possibility that it will exceed 1.2 billion barrels of oil.
"Unrisked gas discoveries have also been reported in offshore Lamu and in the Anza basins," Mosonik added.
