Nairobi — Tullow Oil may shut down operations in northern Kenya in two weeks unless persistent issues with local residents, which threaten progress of the project, are resolved. Disruptions in the remote Turkana region have halted the shipments of a pilot programme to test early production and deliver oil from Lokichar to the port of Mombasa 1,000km away, for future export. Tullow, along with partners Africa Oil and Total, plans to make a final investment decision in 2019 to ramp up production by 2021 and develop a pipeline to ultimately transport the estimated 560-million barrel resource. Tullow has enough supplies to run its Kapese Integrated Operation Base for another 14 days, "after which we will have no option other than a complete shutdown of the camp", the company said. "This will further delay resumption of crude oil trucking by about two months." Kenya’s recent celebration of the first oil shipments, a milestone since Tullow’s discoveries in 2012, has been short lived. Aggr...
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