Kenya has started to export crude oil, with an inaugural shipment of 200,000 bbl from the port of Mombasa to Malaysia for a Chinese company (Chemchina) at a price of US$12m. Kenya's first oil resources were discovered in 2012 at the Lokichar basin in the northern county of Turkana by Tullow Oil and its partner Africa Oil. Estimated reserves in the basin are of around 560 mbl, enough to produce up to 100,000 bbl/d as of 2022. Crude oil production started at a pilot scheme in 2018 and around 2,000 bbl/d of crude oil production has been transported by trucks from Turkana to Mombasa.
In addition, Tullow Oil and Africa Oil signed an agreement with the government and Moller Maersk for the construction of an 891 km long oil export pipeline in 2016. They are working towards a final investment decision (FID) that is expected in 2020. In June 2019, partners signed Heads of Term agreements with the government and Total for the development of a 60,000 - 80,000 bbl/d crude oil processing facility in the northwest of the country that would tap oil resources from the Blocks 10 BB and 13T in South Lokichar Basin. Crude oil production could start in 2023 at the earliest, i.e. three years after the FID.