Kenya's hopes of benefiting from the country's oil potential has been dealt a subtle blow, following a fresh delay in the Turkana oil venture.
UK-based Tullow Oil and its local partner, Gulf Energy Ltd have been granted an additional six months to submit the Field Development Plan (FDP), which is required to move the project into the production phase.
The FDP outlines how oil will be extracted, transported and marketed from Turkana's oil-rich Lokichar Basin.
Without the plan, the government will be unable to issue production licences, meaning the companies involved will be unable to launch a full-scale oil extraction operation.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the extension will run until December 2025, as confirmed by Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) Director-General Daniel Kiptoo.
Within the next six months, Gulf Energy, which agreed to purchase Tullow's stake in the project earlier this year, is expected to revise parts of the FDP before submission.
Full production of oil in Kenya has not been achieved, mainly because the country lacks the necessary infrastructure. For instance, a steady pipeline to transport oil from Turkana to the coast for export has been a biting problem for decades.
Tullow Oil, previously tipped to be the game changer in the oil industry in the country, announced in April 2025 that it was selling its interest in the Kenyan oil blocks to Nairobi-based Gulf Energy as the firm aimed to reduce its debt burden after years of financial pressure and stalled progress.
However, the transaction is heavily contingent upon the completion of the FDP, meaning that until the FDP is submitted, the sale remains on hold.
The six-month window to finalise the FDP is in tandem with recent comments made by Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi, who revealed the government was targeting the end of 2026 to start commercial production.
Wandayi revealed that the state is keen to move past the exploration phase and into full-scale development of the Turkana oil fields, marking a significant milestone in the country’s energy sector.
Oil was first discovered in Turkana in 2012, with residents and the country at large gaining hope of an economic revolution. However, despite pilot exports of crude oil to Mombasa via trucks, no commercial production has taken place 13 years later due to a number of factors, including financial hurdles, infrastructure challenges and delays in regulations.
