Days after the tanker carrying Kenya’s first crude oil export docked at the Malaysian port of Dickson, mystery over the manner in which the sale of the crude was carried out remains thick, with the government remaining choosy with the details to divulge.
Online tracking of the MV Celsius Riga show that it docked on Wednesday with the cargo from Mombasa for onward ferrying to China, but a number of details over just how the crude was sold remains opaque.
SH1.2 BILLION
A day before it was revealed that the Turkana crude had been sold to a Chinese petroleum multinational at Ksh1.2 billion ($12 million), Tullow Oil had declined to name the buyer, citing ‘non-disclosure agreement.’
The firm, however, insisted there had been a bidding process and seven bidders expressed interest.
The ministry of Mining and Petroleum, which later named the winning buyer as ChemChina Limited, the oil buying arm of the Beijing-based ChemChina Petrochemicals, put the number of bidders at eight.
By The Eastafrica
