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Energy ministry restarts delayed licensing round of 10 oil blocks
Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum Opiyo Wandayi after appearing before a joint sitting of the Senate Standing Committee on Energy and the National Assembly's Departmental Committee on Energy at County Hall, Nairobi, on January 12, 2026.
The government has revived its plans to launch a new licensing round of 10 oil and gas exploration blocks, nearly a year after the process stalled due to the absence of requisite laws.
The Energy and Petroleum Ministry is already recruiting an expert to undertake the first-ever competitive auction of 10 oil and gas blocks in the Anza and Lamu basins.
“The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, through the State Department for Petroleum, intends to conduct the first licensing round by offering exploration acreage in 10 premium blocks to qualified oil and gas companies,” it said in a fresh disclosure.
“To support this process, the government seeks to engage a qualified consultant firm with expertise in oil and gas transactions to provide advisory services, technical knowledge, and market insights aimed at attracting international capital and enhancing the competitiveness of Kenya’s petroleum sector.”
The sale of the 10 exploration blocks was initially targeted for September 2025, but this was later pushed forward to June this year at the earliest, as the State sought to enact the necessary laws in line with the Energy Act 2019.
The laws have since been enacted, paving the way for Kenya to competitively sell licences for the oil and gas blocks for the first time. A competitive auction marks a shift from the past, where investors in the petroleum sector would express interest in blocks rich in hydrocarbons. Talks with the State would then follow, culminating with the signing of a Production Sharing Contract (PSC).
A PSC is an agreement for oil or gas exploration and production between the government and a company. It governs the exploration, development, and production of hydrocarbon resources in a specific area.
The 10 are part of the 50 blocks that the Ministry of Energy has prioritised for potential exploration, citing huge potential for oil and gas.
It, however, remains unclear whether these blocks include the 100,000 square kilometre triangle in the Indian Ocean that has been at the centre of a dispute between Kenya and Somalia.
Somalia took Kenya to the International Court of Justice in 2021, with the court ruling in favour of Somalia. However, Kenya rejected the ruling and accused the court of bias.
The triangle hosts three blocks that Kenya had awarded exploration licences to the Italian firm, Eni. The licences lapsed in 2024.
Besides Lamu and Anza, the Mandera and Tertiary Rift Basins are also said to be rich in oil and gas.
Kenya is racing to attract investors to tap the oil and gas reserves, mainly in Northern Kenya and on the Coast, as the country seeks to build on the looming commercial exploration in Turkana County.
Kenya, through Gulf Energy, expects to start commercial production of the Turkana oil Block T6 and Block T7 by December 2026. An estimated 20,000 barrels per day(bpd) of crude oil will be produced in the first phase (2026-2032) before it is scaled up to 50,000 bpd from 2032.
The Ministry of Energy and the Cabinet recently approved Gulf Energy’s field development plan(FDP) for the Turkana oilfields. The plan is now awaiting a decision from Parliament before the end of next month.
Kenya plans to start commercial production of the crude oil in December this year and end a wait of over 13 years since the discovery of crude oil in the South Lokichar basin. The FDP shows that 600,000 bpd of crude oil will be exported every month in phase one. This will jump to 1.5 million bpd in phase two.
Tullow Kenya BV— the local subsidiary of British oil exploration firm Tullow, discovered commercially viable oil in 2012 but was unable to start commercial production due to the lack of a strategic investor and rejection of its FDP. The company then sold the project to Gulf for $120 million (Sh15.5 billion) in a deal that was closed in September 2025.
Gulf Energy last month said it has secured and contracted an onshore oil rig as part of its preparations to deliver first oil from the South Lokichar Basin before the end of the year.
