Gulf Energy 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.
The company said that it secured a rig from Great Wall Drilling Company (GDWC), which is based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on a long-term lease arrangement.
The rig valued at more than Sh1.93 billion is expected to arrive at the Mombasa port before the end of March 2026.
Gulf Energy Chairman Francis Njogu said the firm has reached a contractual arrangement to deliver, commission, and operate the rig in the South Lokichar Basin under a performance-based model that will also involve active skills transfer.
“At Gulf Energy, it’s all systems go, in the journey to deliver first oil by December 1 this year,” he said.
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’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.
Pilot exports of crude oil from the Turkana oil fields fetched more than Sh3billion.
Glencore Singapore Pte Limited and ChemChina UK Limited bought the Turkana oil for $28.34 million (Sh3.65 billion at prevailing rates) under a scheme that was meant to test the appeal of the oil in the global markets.
Disclosures from the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum show that ChemChina bought 240,150 barrels while Glencore purchased the remaining 174,627 barrels. Both deals were closed between 2019 and 2022.
Glencore Singapore Pte. Ltd. is a Singapore-incorporated entity within Glencore plc, a global diversified natural resources company engaged in the production, processing, and marketing of commodities.
