The government has revived plans to open a new licensing round for 10 oil and gas exploration blocks, almost a year after the initiative stalled due to the lack of the necessary legal framework. The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum has begun recruiting a specialist to oversee the country’s first competitive auction of exploration blocks located in the Anza and Lamu basins.
According to the ministry, the State Department for Petroleum intends to offer exploration rights in 10 high-potential blocks to qualified oil and gas firms through a formal bidding process.
To support the exercise, the government plans to hire an experienced consultancy with expertise in petroleum transactions. The firm will provide advisory services, technical guidance and market intelligence aimed at attracting global investors and strengthening the competitiveness of Kenya’s petroleum industry.
The licensing round had initially been scheduled for September 2025 but was later postponed to at least June this year as the government moved to put in place the regulations required under the Energy Act 2019. With the legal framework now enacted, Kenya is set to sell exploration licences through a competitive process for the first time.
This marks a departure from the earlier system where companies expressed interest in specific hydrocarbon prospects and negotiated directly with the government before signing a Production Sharing Contract (PSC).
A PSC outlines the terms under which a company explores, develops and produces oil or gas within a designated area, sharing the proceeds with the government.
The 10 blocks form part of a wider pool of 50 exploration areas that the Energy Ministry has identified as having significant petroleum potential.
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However, it remains uncertain whether the offer includes the roughly 100,000-square-kilometre triangular zone in the Indian Ocean that has been the subject of a maritime dispute between Kenya and Somalia. The disagreement was taken to the International Court of Justice in 2021, where the ruling favoured Somalia, a decision Kenya rejected while accusing the court of bias.
That contested maritime area contains three exploration blocks previously licensed to the Italian energy firm Eni. Those licences expired in 2024.
