British oil explorer Tullow paid the Kenyan government $3,690,000 (Sh577.9 million as at end of last year) as expenses grew for the firm on its complete takeover of the Turkana oil project. Disclosures by Tullow show that the payments to the government jumped six times from $778,000 (Sh90.07 million) a year earlier, mainly driven by withholding tax and training expenses. Tullow’s joint partners Africa Oil and Total exited the venture in May last year, leaving the British firm to shoulder all expenses of the project in South Lokichar Basin.
The exits saw Tullow take 100 percent control of the project whose commercialisation had been dogged by a lack of funds and delays by the government to approve the field development plan (FDP).
