Is there any doubt that in the end it will be CNOOC who buys into Kenya.

Forget the Uganda oil, proposed pipeline, lack of infrastructure, cost of development, etc.

This is not about money, its about internal domestic stability in China.

Over the next 20 years China faces the huge task of transitioning its 1.3 billion population from a rural farming existence into an industrial based economy, all the while averting social, political and economic revolution. That interest is best served by securing resources, energy, a consumer market for goods and increasing global Chinese influence.

Unlike other major oil companies who only are accountable to share holders and only seek to maximize profits, CNOOC was created to be an instrument of the Chinese government’s political, economic and foreign policy.

China does not care about money, they covet internal stability. The will pay a premium to what ever commercial interests further that goal.

They buy US debt because they need the largest consumer market in the world to buy their junk, they pay a 66 percent premium for Nexen because they need the oil, they will continue to develop relations with Africa in order to turn the continent into a consumer market for Chinese goods, they will buy east Africa oil because unlike the US influenced middle east, they will have control over the oil in Africa.

Tullow Oil to Seek Kenya Partners as Finds Make Exports Viable

By Eduard Gismatullin - May 8, 2013 3:45 AM PT

Tullow Oil Plc (TLW), the U.K. explorer that found Kenya’s first oil, plans to secure partners to develop fields in the African nation as discoveries prove that future crude exports are viable.

Tullow together with partner Africa Oil Corp. (AOI) plans to drill about 10 wells in Kenya and Ethiopia this year to explore the Turkana Rift Basin that stretches between the two countries. Tullow plans to sell part of its stake in five licenses in Kenya, Chief Executive Officer Aidan Heavey said.

“It’s never been our intention to stick with 50 percent all the way through,” Heavey said today in London. “It’s too much for any company, even a major company.” If local roads were improved, Tullow could start producing from Kenya now, possibly trucking crude to the refinery in Mombasa, he said.

Tullow, based in London, has drilled three wells in Kenya with the first oil discovery at the Ngamia well and the first commercial flow from the Twiga well in the South Lokichar Basin. The nation may export its first crude at the same time as Uganda, where Tullow is working with Total SA (FP) and Cnooc Ltd. (883) to develop the Lake Albert fields, Heavey told reporters.

“A few more wells may actually prove it to be a major development” the CEO said. “If that’s the case, then the pipeline from Uganda could quite easily go through Lokichar, pick up the oil there” for exports through an Indian Ocean port. “What we are trying to do is to bring in the right type of partners and we get them to come up with financing.”

Unlike landlocked Uganda, Kenya doesn’t require running an export pipeline across other countries, he said. Tullow will bring a fourth rig to the region to accelerate drilling later this year and will increase the Ngamia well resource estimate “quite significantly” following “encouraging” tests.

In West Africa, the company is looking for partners to sell part of its largest stakes in exploration licenses in deep waters off Mauritania, Heavey said.

Tullow global oil and gas producing projects generate enough cash to spend about $1 billion a year on exploration.

“We are focused on building the biggest exploration business around,” Heavey said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eduard Gismatullin in London at egismatullin@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-08/tullow-oil-to-seek-kenya-partners-as-finds-mak