National Oil is collaborating with the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) to offer high-level Oil and Gas seminars and training to policy makers and opinion leaders.
The collaboration is the first of its kind in Kenya’s extractives sector and will see National Oil and Chatham House jointly develop training content and implement training sessions and seminars for select groups of key stakeholders.
The content of the seminars and training sessions will be tailored to address specific needs of participants. Generally, the trainings will cover aspects related to strategy and policy making, principles and practice of petroleum fiscal systems, oil and gas contracting as well as local content development.
The first seminar is currently underway at the Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha and brings together oil and gas sector policy makers and leaders from across the world to share their experiences and learn from each other.
“This initiative is aimed at ensuring that we are well prepared as a country and the region to get the best out of the emerging oil and gas sector,” said Sumayya Hassan-Athmani, the National Oil Chief Executive Officer.
“We recognize that policy makers in oil and gas need capacity building to enable them make informed decisions. As the national oil company, we are convinced that sector decisions should be informed by the latest trends in the international best practices,” Sumayya added.
It is estimated that Kenya will commence oil production from the Lokichar basin acreage by February 2017. Global Data, an international research company on energy estimates that oil wells in Lokichar could generate over US$10 billion in revenues over a three-decade production period.
The partnership with Chatham House is part of a broad strategy by National Oil to develop adequate local capacity.
National Oil has also partnered with other leading local institutions including Strathmore University, University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University to support them in developing courses relevant to the oil and gas sector.