African countries such as Kenya are already building determined efforts to explore, produce and export their large discoveries of crude oil.

Speculations remains that Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, with its recent grapple with upsurge in crude oil thefts and force majeure, may soon begin to experience severe competition in the face of this development.

Oil deposits in Kenya, according to the countries’ estimations, may top 10 billion barrels, heading to become the first oil exporter in East Africa, and then moving in less than five years from being a have-not nation to the regional leader in cutting reliance on energy suppliers such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

After Tullow Oil Plc discovered oil last year, Kenya is set to start shipments by 2016, overtaking neighbouring Uganda, where Tullow found crude oil more than seven years ago.

According to Bloomberg, Paul McDade, Chief Operating Officer, Tullow Oil Plc, said the United Kingdom explorer plans to start pumping in Kenya as soon as next year.

Tullow Oil Corp, Operator of the Ngamia-1 well, recently revealed after verifications that the Ngamia and Twiga fields contain over 250 million barrels of recoveable oil.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has however lamented that Crude oil theft has hindered Nigeria from coming near the 2.53 million barrels per day (bpd) estimate in the 2013 budget with huge revenue losses, estimated at over $1.23 billion (N190 billion) in the first quarter.