US firm gets extension of licence at Kenya oil blocks

The Government has extended prospecting licences for US oil company, Erin Energy Corporation, in a move that points to Kenya’s growing extractives industry, which is anticipated to earn the country a windfall in petrodollars.

Erin currently has licences to prospect in Kenya and owns nine licences, onshore and offshore oil blocks in Nigeria, Ghana, the Gambia and Kenya. The company has obtained an eighteen-month extension of the Initial Exploration Period (IEP) of its offshore Kenya blocks, L27 and L28, both of which it holds the sole operating rights and a 100 per cent stake.