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Kenya has failed to strike oil and gas deposits in the coastal strip that has for years been at the centre of an international border dispute with neighbouring Somalia.
Seismic surveys at Mlima-1 well, which is known as Block L11B in the Lamu Basin, revealed that the wells were dry, ending a 10-year search for oil in the coastline that had emerged as one of the world’s hottest exploration prospects, according to Business Daily Africa reported.
The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) said that ENI Kenya Business Venture (BV), formerly Agip, folded the project before mid this year after it failed to trace deposits of oil and gas in the area.
It granted Eni the exploration permit in 2012 amid protests from Somalia’s government that Kenya was offering the blocks illegally.
Kenya stepped up exploration activities in the Lamu Basin in December last year, weeks after rejecting a UN court ruling that decided mostly in favour of Somalia in the maritime row.
“There was promising activity but unfortunately, they (ENI) hit a dry well and they had to close the operations,’’ Epra said.
Kenya is not liable to compensate the multinational in the absence of the deposits.
ENI had been mapping for deposits of oil and gas in the Lamu Basin since April last year despite the border row with Somalia over the coastal strip that spans 100,000 square-kilometres.
The basin stretches from the Kenya-Somalia border to the boundary with Tanzania and the government was banking on its vastness to secure Kenya oil production wells.
The start of the explorations sparked a diplomatic tiff with Somalia after Mogadishu accused Nairobi of encroaching on its mineral resources. Somalia lodged a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in August 2014 over the strip believed to harbour oil, natural gas and mineral reserves.
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