Tullow Oil stopped working on its Kenyan oil field and suspended its trucking operations due to security concerns, chief executive Paul McDade told Reuters on Wednesday.
Tullow is targeting a final investment decision on his $ 2.9 billion (90 billion shillings) project by the end of 2019, which would open the country's oil industry to exports.
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The protests and security issues have ended a pilot project that currently routes about 600 barrels of oil a day to Mombasa before the construction of a pipeline that should be operational in 2022.
"What you saw locally, it is the local people, the community … using the trucking operation as a lever, to demonstrate to the national government that the situation on the ground should be safe. improve, "said Mr. McDade. "This is not a big problem for us."
"We are expecting to work there, to put the field back into service and to move the trucks in the near future, but it's important to take the time so that when we come back … we have a more sure. "
Tullow aims to produce at least 100,000 barrels of oil a day after the first oil in 2021/22
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The firm said last week that stalemate with the local community could have cost it up to 200 million shillings until now, as it pays for rented equipment that is inactive on the site.
She added that she was going to close her Lokichar base in the next few weeks, while the essential was exhausted.
Tullow also said that he will be exporting the first cargo of crude oil by March next year despite the challenges he has faced. "The first round of low-sulfur Kenyan crude oil from Mombasa is expected in the first quarter of 2019," the company said.
"The pilot is a data collection exercise and there are lessons." There have been some trucking distractions in the last two weeks and these are exactly the types of problems we are trying to track down. Said McDade
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[Reuters, with additional reporting by Macharia Kamau]