Keyna’s plans to become a major oil producer by 2017 have hit a technical snag in the form of a five year delay thanks to the planned crude oil pipeline connecting Uganda and local oil fields to Lamu, said AllAfrica.com. Uganda’s plans were originally less ambitious, with its own proposed oil refinery to become operational in 2018, with an initial capacity of 30,000 b/d, to reach 60,000 by 2020.

Toyota Tsusho announced that October 2022 is the earliest date that it can finish construction and make the Kenyan pipeline deliver crude. One of the companies that welcomed the decision to go ahead with the Kenya-Uganda pipeline, Tullow Oil Company, had actually stated on a previous occasion that it could only produce the first oil by 2020.

According to Rigzone, the decision to go ahead with the pipeline had offset some failed exploratory investments Tullow had experienced recently with two Tullow offshore wells plugged and abandoned in Suriname and Norway after failing to find commercial hydrocarbons.