Business report by leo odera omolo
East African community partner states are this week converging in the Kenya’s coastal port City of 0Mombasa for an energy conference with oil and sea exploration taking the center stage at the three days workshop
The conference will take place between Wednesday and Friday where local petroleum experts will join their peers from Tanzania ,Uganda , Rwanda , and Burundi to explore petroleum potential and investment opportunities in the region.
This is the second time Kenya will host the conference since 2006 with 600 delegates drawn from international and national oil companies ,petroleum firms ,government representatives and gene-science institutions expected to flock the Mombasa’s Sarova White sands Beach resort.
The significance of the importance of the conference is that President Mwai Kibaki is expected to officially open the function on Wednesday, according to a report appearing in the today’s edition of the DAILY NATION.
Even as the five East African countries jointly promote and market the sector to potential petroleum industry investors their government must demonstrate more interest in the largely under explored industry.
“ The onshore and offshore sedimentary basins of the xxx have similar geology with huge potential for untapped oil and gas accumulation this potential needs to be fully evaluated through efforts of all stakeholders v”, according to Kenya , Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi
Among the critical aspects up for debate are natural gas development petroleum revenue management east Africa rift basin system and onshore and offshore opportunities regionally.
Policy issues like the existing legal framework and fiscal regions and govern regional petroleum operations will also be discussed at the conference.
The E A region has high potential for hydro-carbon as indicated by recent oil and gas discovery in Tanzania and Uganda respectively “says the conference final circular.”
In Kenya the oil and gas exploration is active both onshore and offshore with the government having signed production sharing contracts with internationally oil companies for 19 out of the country’s 38 acreage blocks.
Rwandan prospects are notable given the county’s estimates that methane gas potential at Lake Kivu is equivalent to 40 million tones of oil and can generate energy for a 700 megawatts from plant running rate of a billion cubic meters of methane per year
If fully exploited Rwanda has the potential to export energy to other African states already Burundi has began exploration on Lake Tanganyika basins.
Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com
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Mon, 9 Mar 2009 07:29:39 -0700 [09:29:39 AM CDT]
Leo Odera Omolo
REGIONAL ENERGY EXPERTS TO HOLD THREE DAYS CONFERENCE ON OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION IN MOMBASA THIS WEEK