Kenya offers 46 oil blocs to Nigerian investors

Kenya has offered its 46 newly-discovered oil blocs for interested Nigerian investors in the oil and gas industry to develop, one of the of the outcomes of the dialogue group preceding the Nigeria-Kenya Investment Forum held on Friday in Nairobi.

This comes on the heels of President Goodluck Jonathan's open support for Kenya's decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court on the eve of the trials of its President and Deputy President over charges of having played roles in the Kenyan post-election violence of 2008 in which over 1,000 people were killed.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who concluded the three-day state visit to Kenya on Saturday, and his host, President Uhuru Kenyatta, presided over the forum. The forum had in attendance more than 500 prominent investors from both countries.

Among the delegates were influential Nigerian business magnates who flew into Nairobi, aboard a fleet of seven private jets.

Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke  had disclosed on Saturday that beyond giving the opportunity to Nigerian investors to acquire the oil wells, Kenya also sought Nigeria's assistance in the formulation of right policies and framework to manage the sector.

"It is well known now that Kenya had recently discovered hydro-carbon reserves and they are very keen to move quite aggressively in terms of exploration activities.

"They felt as sister African country, Nigeria, having many years of oil exploration and production, that it only makes sense that we exchange agreement in cooperation to hand over knowledge, capabilities and experience learnt.

"They seek various templates that we have formulated including policies, processes and a sort of templates that form Petroleum Industry Bill, among others.

"We also looked at areas surrounding Nigeria's investments possibilities where we think that Nigerian business men and women could come into the oil and gas sector in Kenya.

"They are very keen that Nigerian operators in the upstream, midstream and downstream service sectors of the oil and gas industry look to Kenya as a burgeonis frontier for investments in the oil and gas sector. more on newsinquirer