AfricaNews reporter said the well prospecting is being done in arid Merti area of Isiolo, a region said to be having the same geological formations as most Middle East and nearer home in Sudan. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is overseeing the drilling process.

However, our reporter said already the government has cautioned citizens against being overly optimistic saying the area may have or may not have oil deposits.

“We do not want Kenyans to start celebrating this early, we must wait for up to six months before we can be sure of whether or not we will strike oil,” said Kiraitu Murungi, the Energy Minister.

Drilling for prospecting purposes according to the minister will take up to six months while exploitation of deposits if found to be in commercially viable quantities will take up to five years to commence.

The minister further cautioned that besides finding oil bearing rocks, the deposits must be in large deposits for commercial exploitation to begin. It is not until May next year that the country will establish whether or not the current excitement has a basis.

AfricaNews reporter said Kenya stands the chance to join the likes of Sudan, Angola and Nigeria in sub-Saharan Africa should the results be positive. Uganda last year also reported that it had found huge oil deposits in Lake Albert but is yet to start commercial drilling.

Protest

Our reporter said before the ground had been broken on the 5,000 meter well, media reports over the weekend indicated locals in Isiolo were holding a protest march, complaining that they had not been involved in the drilling and in the whole process of prospecting for the resource on their land.

They also lamented that their sons had been left out in jobs recruitment at the site by contractors, saying that the area on which the drilling was going on was their grazing lands.

The government though has a right to forcefully acquire any land under which an important resource lies according to the law, our reporter said. Already, business watchers are uncertain whether Kenya could avoid any oil conflict as exist in Nigeria’s Niger-Delta among others.

Conflict has raged in Angola for decades over oil and diamonds wealth, and is still raging in Nigeria. Conflict continues to bedevil Eastern Congo over a variety of minerals found there and West African countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone are just emerging out of war for similar reasons.