Reuters reports that Total SA (NYSE: TOT) is to buy shares in three Kenyan oil blocks from A.P. Moeller-Maersk (CPH: MAERSK-B), the office of Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Tuesday.
Britain’s (Tullow Oil LON: TLW) and its Canadian partner Africa Oil discovered commercially viable crude in the Turkana region in the far north of Kenya in 2012. A.P. Moeller-Maersk later bought equity in these blocks.
Full production is expected in early 2021 after completion of a planned $2.1 billion pipeline to transport the crude through the proposed port of Lamu.
Kenyatta’s office said Total had committed to the pipeline, prompting the government to agree to a proposal for the French oil major to buy “the issued and to-be-issued share capital of Maersk Oil Exploration International (Mogas Kenya) in respect of Blocks 10BA, 10BB and 13T”.
