Tullow to undertake test tracking of crude oil from Lokichar to Mombasa

TURKANA, KENYA: Tullow Oil Company  is set to conduct an Early Oil Pilot Scheme (EOPS)  on Friday by transporting crude oil from Lokichar in Turkana to Mombasa.

The exercise will witness a historic transportation through two trucks as an assessment on the utilization of road even as the company gears up to a later process of ferrying the oil through 20 trucks per day.

The news from company bestowed with exploring oil in Turkana and Elgeyo Marakwet counties comes at a time that it concluded a successful first phase of drilling and appraisal of the South Lokichar basin.

"The company will have two tracks that will transport oil from Lokichar to Mombasa to check for logistics. Our aim is to test its reaction to different temperatures. To understand the amount of time that it will take to get the oil to Mombasa. This will help people understand the logistics involved in the transportation process," said Tullow's communication officer Dennis Okore.

He noted that besides the road transportation, they will be looking forward to assess utilization of rail to Mombasa port for refining besides providing technical information that will assist in planning and development of field activities.

The pilot project comes as the company announced plans to recommence drilling activities in four more wells in Lokichar.

The wells comprise of Etete and Erut in the North of South Lokichar and Ngamia and Amosing fields with anticipation of huge volumes of the oil on the undrilled volumes. Turkana County currently boasts 750 million barrels of recoverable oil under its 77,000 sq kilometres of land