The National Oil Corporation of Kenya is a fully integrated State Corporation involved in all aspects of the petroleum supply chain covering the upstream oil and gas exploration, midstream petroleum infrastructure development and downstream marketing of petroleum products.

In the upstream, National Oil facilitates and directly participates in oil and gas exploration activities in Kenya. As a facilitator, National Oil is tasked with the marketing of Kenya’s exploration acreage, management of gas and exploration data and the running of the National Petroleum Laboratory among other attendant responsibilities.

National Oil is among the few African national oil companies directly involved in the search for oil and gas. National Oil operates its own exploration acreage in Block 14T which is located within the Tertiary Rift Basin and runs from the shores of Lake Bogoria down to Lake Magadi Basin on the border of Kenya and Tanzania.

In the midstream development of petroleum infrastructure, National Oil identified and is working on three key projects including the development of an offshore floating jetty technically known as a Single Buoy Mooring (SBM), the establishment of Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) and the crafting of a Petroleum Development Master Plan for Kenya. With the ongoing petroleum infrastructure projects, National Oil aims to position the Kenyan coast an important petroleum trading hub in the same league as Fujairah, Amsterdam and Rotterdam as well as prepare for the anticipated oil and gas production from Kenya and the East African region following recent discoveries.

National Oil has an active downstream business segment with a growing retail network of over 99 service stations spread throughout the country. The Corporation also serves a cross-section of resellers, industrial and government businesses from its modern Nairobi National Terminal. In addition to its fuels business, National Oil has developed and deployed a number of innovative products and services including its SupaGas brand of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), the Supa range of motor and industrial lubricants, an advanced electronic fuel management system named SupaCard and a vibrant alternative business unit that deals with non-fuel businesses.

History

National Oil was incorporated in April 1981 with a mandate to participate in all aspects of the petroleum industry. The Corporation is wholly owned by the Government of Kenya through a joint ownership by the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining and the National Treasury.

National Oil became operational in 1984 and its initial operations were limited to exploration activities delegated from the then Ministry of Energy. In 1988, National Oil went downstream and actively started participating in the importation and sale of petroleum products including crude oil, white fuels, lubricants and LPG.

The formation of National Oil was precipitated by the oil crises of the 1970’s (1973/74 and 1979/80) and the correspondent supply disruptions and price hikes which resulted in the country’s cost of hitting the all-time high of over one third of the total import bill and therefore making petroleum the single largest drain of Kenya’s foreign exchange earnings.

National Oil was set up to become a special instrument for the Government of Kenya to have greater control of the petroleum sector which is key to the country’s economic performance. National Oil has since remained the Government’s policy instrument in matters related to oil and gas specifically in the upstream exploration of oil and gas, mid-stream petroleum infrastructure development and the downstream marketing and distribution of petroleum products and services.

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